A Few More From Donna Horsfield

Vidalia Onion Chicken          Donna Horsfield
1 or 2 lbs chicken tenders (depending on how many people you are serving)
Vidalia onion dressing
Spray square or oblong glass dish or pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour just enough dressing on bottom of the dish to cover it. Layer the chicken tenders side by side and then pour some dressing on top of the tenders - enough to barely cover them. If you still have chicken left, after the first layer, repeat the process. Just don't put so much dressing in that the tenders are floating in it.
Bake covered at 325 for about 30 minutes then uncover and cook for another 15 minutes or so. We always serve it with mashed potatoes and a side veggie.

Country Pie     Donna Horsfield
The crust:
1/2 8oz can tomato sauce (1/2 cup)
1 lb ground beef
1/4 c chopped onion
1/4 c chopped green pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp oregano
1/2 c bread crumbs
Combine all of the above ingredeients in a bowl and mix well with a fork. Then pat the meat mixture gently into the bottom and sides of a greased 9 inch pie plate.
The filling:
1 1/3 c Minute Rice
1 1/2 8oz cans tomato sauce (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1 c water
1 c grated cheddar cheese
Combine Minute Rice, tomato sauce, salt, water and 1/2 cup cheese. Spoon the rice mixture into the meat shell. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake in moderate over (350) for 25 minutes. Uncover, top with remaining cheese. Bake uncovered 10 to 15 minutes.

Cranberry Nut Bread       Donna Horsfield
2 c sifted flour                   (4)
3/4 c orange juice              (1 1/2)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder    (3)
2 tsp orange rind                (4 tsp)
1 tsp salt                             (2)
1 c sugar                             (2)
1/2 tsp baking soda            (1)
1 c cranberries                    (2)
1 egg                                   (2)
1/2 c walnuts                       (1)
1/4 c soft shortening            (1/2)
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda into mixing bowl and set aside. Put egg, shortening, orange juice, rind, and sugar into blender. Cover and process at MIX until well blended. Stop blender and add nuts and cranberries. Cover and process at CHOP. Empty into flour mixture and mix buy hand only until flour is moistened. Pour into greased 9x5x3 loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for at least 1 hour before removing from pans.
*Recipe yields one loaf. Numbers to the right are recipe doubled. This will yield 2 regular loaves or 3 small loaves using mini loaf pans.

Summer Delights

Zucchini Bread              Walda Passaro
Makes 2 loaves of bread.
3 eggs
2 c sugar
1 c vegetable oil
1 TB vanilla
2 c grated zucchini
2 c flour
1 TB cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
Beat eggs until frothy. Combine with sugar, oil and vanilla until thickened.
Stir in zucchini and the rest of the ingredients. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Test after 45 minutes.

Hot Crab Dip     Claudia Goodwin
2 large packages of cream cheese
1/2 to 1 cup cottage cheese
2 TB minced onion
2 TB mayonnaise
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
Mix in 1 lb lump crab meat.
Turn into oven safe casserole. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Sherbet      Minnie Garton
1 pint milk
3/4 c sugar
3 bananas
Small jar of cherries
1 can crushed pineapple
pinch of salt
Blend together and freeze in ice cube trays.

Fresh Peach Pie      Nanny Konschak
For pie crust:
3/4 c flour
1/2 c sugar
2 TB crisco
Mix crust, roll out and line a pie plate. Cover bottom of pie crust with a thin layer of breadcrumbs. Peel and slice enough peaches to over-fill the pie plate. Put peaches in pie crust and put a little sugar over the peaches. To 1 can of cream, add enough milk to measure 1 1/2 cups. Add a little sugar to the milk. Beat 3 eggs and add to the milk mixture. Pour over the peaches. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top. Bake at 425 for just under 20 minutes and then reduce heat to 350 for another 1/2 hour.

More Summertime Favorites

Clam  Pot-Pie         Kay Ayres
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/3 c water
2 TB lard
Cut lard into dry ingredients. Stir in eggs and water. Roll out on floured board and cut into 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch squares.
Stew about 2 dozen minced chowder clams in juice and a little water. Let boil. Add parsley and onion flakes. Drop in dough by tablespoons and cook with lid on til done. 

Mother's Clam Pie        Kay Ayres' Grandma Virg
1 1/2 dozen chowder clams - Open and save as much juice as possible. Cut away dark patch of innards and throw away. Use scissors and cut clam in chunks.
6 med boiling potatoes - Precook. I usually use red skin. Boil and cook with skins on. Cool. Peel and chopup into cubes.
2 large stalks celery diced
3/4 c chopped onion
parsley flakes
5 hard boiled eggs, sliced.
Mix ingredients. Add clam juice.
Make pie crust. Cut into strips for lattice top.
Put ingredients, with pie crust on top, in a 2 - 3 quart casserole.
Bake at 450 for about 1 hour until top is slightly browned.

Crab Balls       Donna McCafferty Kalita
1 lb Maryland crabmeat
1/2 c breadcrumbs
1 egg
1/4 c mayonnaise
1/2 tsp old bay
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Mix together all ingredients except crabmeat. Gently fold in crabmeat. Form into 1/2 inchg balls and fry in oil heated to 360 degrees until browned and cooked through. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Corn Fritters          Janice McCafferty

1 c fresh or canned corn
1 egg beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1 c plus 2 TB flour
If using canned corn, drain off excerss juice. Add beaten egg, flour, baking powder and salt. Blend thoroughly. Fry on hot griddle using cooking oil, lard, bacon crippings, or other shortening. If mixture seems too thin, add more flour - too thick, add drained juice from corn or milk if using fresh corn. If center is not done when outside browns, batter may be too thick or heat too high. Some corn may also require about 1 tsp sugar to improve flavor. Change it up using bluberries or yellow or green squash. I use sour cream with them or pancake syrup. All depends which kind you make. Sometimes I use just butter.

Bar-B-Q Sauce        Becky Ayres
Enough for 3 pounds of meat:

Margaret and Walt Konschak
Becky and Dell Ayres
1978

1 medium onion quartered
1 clove garlic
1 12oz bottle chili sauce
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c salad oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
3 dashes tabasco
2 TB Worcestershire sauce
3 TB holey
1 TB vinegar
3/4 can beer - drink the rest
Put all in blender and blend for about 30 seconds.
Pour in sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Bread Pudding, Wacky Cake, Hot Milk Sponge Cake, Chocolate Chip Squares, Coconut Lemon Bars, Blueberry Pie

Bread Pudding         Jim (DoDad) Steelman - (my grandfather)
DoDad made this for my mother and her three siblings as a special treat - usually using up stale bread and rolls. (nothing wasted!) I now make it once a week for my 93 year old mother and she says it tastes like home.
4 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
milk
4 slices of bread
2-3 TB butter
Whisk first 4 ingredients together and add enough milk to make 4 cups total. Generously butter 4 slices of bread and break into pieces and put in bottom of a 2 quart casserole. Pour egg mixture over bread and sprinkle with cinnamon. Place casserole in a pan of water deep enough to cover half way up the sides of the casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Wacky Cake         Madeline Goldstine (Donna Pio's mother)
1 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
3 TB cocoa
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 TB oil
1 c cold water
Put dry ingredients into ungreased 9x9 baking pan. Make three holes. In first hole put oil or melted shortening. In 2nd put vinegar and in 3rd put vanilla. Pour cold water over all and mix well. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Double the recipe for a 13x9 or 2 9" cake pans. Good with chocolate frosting recipe from the cocoa box and add a big gob of peanut butter.

Hot Milk Sponge    Deni Finch-Frederick
Hot milk sponge was a "fancy" cake and a highly desired one, at least in our family's group. I remember that certain people had the "touch" for it and other's couldn't make it turn out for the life of them. Not sure why. It was never called Hot Milk Sponge Cake - only Hot Milk Sponge. 

4 eggs
2 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 c flour
Pinch salt
1 c scalded milk
Butter size of walnut
1 tsp vanilla
Beat eggs very lightly. Add sugar just to mix. Add next three ingredients. Stir until mixed. Add scalded milk in which the butter has been melted and the vanilla has been added. Beat until foamy. Pour into turk's head pan that has been lightly greased. Bake at 350 about 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Hot Milk Sponge
*This recipe came with no mention of cake pan size. With only 2 cups of flour, it can't be that big. Maybe 9x9 or 9x13. Hope someone tries it and lets me know.
4 eggs
2 c sugar
2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 c warm or hot milk - not boiling
1 TB butter
Beat eggs well. Add sugar a little at a time, then flour a little at a time, then butter melted in milk a little at a time and then the baking powder. Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour.

Chocolate Chip Squares  Frances Buzby (Marilyn Merritt's mother)
2 c (24) packed fine graham cracker crumbs
1 6oz bag semi sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 c chopped nuts
1 can condensed milk
Grease 8x8 or 9x9 pan. Line with waxed paper or foil and grease again. Blend dry ingredients. Stir in milk, Turn into pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Remove from pan - peel paper and cool on wire rack. Cover with 10x sugar and cut into squares.

Coconut Lemon Bars           Marilyn Salmon
2 c flour 
1/2 c margarine
1/4 c brown sugar
3 eggs
2 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 c coconut
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts
2 tsp lemon juice
Mix first three ingredients together. Press into 13x9 pan and bake for 10 minutes at 350. Mix egg, sugar and salt together and then stir in the rest. Spread over the bottom crust and return to the oven for 25 minutes.

Blueberry Pie          Vickie - neighbor on 12th Street in the 1970s.
This is the best Blueberry Pie I've ever had!

4 c blueberries
2/3 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 TB flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 c heavy cream
Wash and drain blueberries. Mix sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon. Add berries and toss. Put mixture into unbaked pie crust. Pour heavy cream over berries. Bake at 400 for 35-45 minutes.

My Childhood Hit List

Open Face Sandwich         Margaret Konschak

My mother used to spread baked beans on toast and top it with a slice of tomato, a thin slice of onion, a slice of cheese and two crossed slices of bacon and broil it. Sounds terrible but was pretty good and cheap.


Creamed Spinach on Fried Eggs with Home Fries

Here's another dish I remember having as a child. I don't know that I'd enjoy it today, but thought I'd mention it since we ate it quite a lot. I do remember the egg yolk being pretty good when mixed in with the spinach. At least we got our iron! 
Start the potatoes first as they will take longer. Brown 2 or 3 sliced potatoes in hot oil in a frying pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Keep heat low and cover. If they start to stick, add a little water around the edge. Try to turn potatoes only once so they don't become mushy. 
Cream the spinach by combining in a sauce pan 1/4 c butter, 1/4 c flour, 1 c milk,(what my mom always called "The basic White Sauce") 1 bag or 2 boxes of frozen spinach (I would use fresh today) salt and pepper. Fry eggs as you normally would and on the plate, put the creamed spinach over the fried eggs.


Vegetable Soup       Margaret Konschak
1 lb beef cubes
1 qt beef broth
1 qt water
2 stalks celery chopped
1 turnip diced
1 can dices tomatoes
1 large bag of frozen mixed vegetables
Thyme, parsley, bay leaf, dried basil, salt and pepper to taste
Pasta - orzo, broken spaghetti, or small shells (about 1/2 cup)
Brown meat in bottom of large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients except pasta. Simmer for three hours stirring occasionally. Remove meat and bay leaf and add pasta. Pull meat apart into small pieces and return to pot. Continue to cook until pasta is soft.

Quakers - Oatmeal Cookies     Margaret Konschak
2 c brown sugar
1 c shortening
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
3 c oats
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Cream sugar and shortening and then add eggs and vanilla. Mix together flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Blend into creamed mixture. Roll dough into balls the size of walnuts. Dip in granulated sugar and drop[ on greased cookie sheet 3 inches apart. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes.

Crab Imperial        Margaret Konschak
1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
Melt butter and mix in flour stirring constantly. Gradually add about 1 1/2 cups of milk continuing to stir. Season with salt and pepper. Cool sauce and add 1 can of crab meat. If you're using fresh picked crab meat, gradually add meat to sauce until the mixture holds together without being too dry or too soupy. If making crab cakes, let mixture cool before forming. Dip in beaten egg and then breadcrumbs. Makes 6 large cakes which can be broiled or fried. This can also be a casserole with a light coating of breadcrumbs on top dotted with butter.

Shake-A-The-Pot             Walt Konschak
Cook live crabs in a large pot of water, beer, and old bay seasoning. My dad always said that you knew when they were done when they stopped singing and turned red. Ugh. Cool the crabs and remove the legs and pinchers from the body.  
Melt a stick of butter in a frying pan. (My dad used an electric frying pan back in the day) Place crab bodies in a single layer in the melted butter. Sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning. Since you can't stir crabs, my dad would "shake the pot" to keep them from sticking. After they have bubbled in the butter for 3 or 4 minutes, turn them over, sprinkle with more Old Bay, add more butter if you like and shake again for a few minutes. Be prepared to have butter dripping everywhere as you pick the warm crabs and enjoy.

Home made crab measurer.
The points  of the shell had to be wider than the  opening or you had to throw them back.

Clams Casino                Walt Konschak
Recipe is the same whether you are making 20 or 200. We usually made 200! Use little neck clams. Good advice: If the clams open too easily or are already slightly open, don't use them! They ought to put up a little fight.
Open, loosen from shell and clean clams under cold running water. (Sand, bits of broken shell, any suspicious looking stuff that you wouldn't care to eat) Place clam on half of the shell and line up shells up on a baking sheet.
1 lb bacon - cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces (We don't precook the bacon - the broiler takes care of that)
1 lb cheddar cheese (like Cracker Barrel) sliced and then the slices cut in half
1 chopped green pepper and 1 chopped onion sautéed together in butter or oil.

My dad's old clam opener

On each clam place a spoonful of green pepper mixture, a small slice of cheese and a piece of bacon or two. When tray is assembled, place it under the oven broiler until bacon is crisp. Many a lip was burned in Sea Isle because we couldn't wait for them to cool.

Our Memories

Judi Grau Shute 

Leftover Sunday pot roast became hash on Monday. Mom cut up the beef and add carrots, potatoes, onions and the leftover gravy. Yum, she was the best cook. She would cook and especially bake and give her cakes away to everybody. Dad used to take to Rescue Squad when he volunteered there. She would even take to the guys in the motorcycle shop across the street because they cleared the snow from her drive.

Karen Beck  

I have the Yum Yum cake recipe. I have made it over the years my grand mom always said it was Depression Cake.

Miriam Jane Sanders 

I remember my grandmother making fresh lima beans (in season) and we had them with bread and butter as dinner. Or a big strawberry shortcake made with bisquit dough. That was it for dinner and we loved it.

Butch Beebe 

My Mom would do that exact same thing. When fresh peas were in season, my Mom would cook them and add a little milk to the pot with butter and salt & pepper. Bread & butter and that was the meal. I loved it when we had strawberry shortcake for dinner. We didnt have whipped cream, I guess that was too expensive.

My Mom & Grandmom didn't really use recipes to cook by.....they just knew how and added ingredients until it "looked right". A little of this and some of that. Very few of my Mom's recipes were ever written.

Bill Kears 

When I was a kid till in my 20's. Every morning for

brekfast, I had buttered toast in a bowl with hot milk poured over it. Like Judi Grau Shute posted. But mine was never salted. We called it milked toast.

Not sure who posted this. Let me know if you own this post and I'll give you credit.

Recently had a "Millville moment", a friend asked me for my recipe for snidley beans. My mother and grandmother made them with green beans, bacon, onion, vinegar and sugar. Does anyone else remember such a recipe? Also, here in Florida they make their chicken pot pie as a pie baked in the oven with veggies and that doesn't even make sense. It's called pot pie because it is cooked on the stove top in a pot NOT in the oven! They don't call apple pie apple pot pie and its baked the same way in the oven with only a different filling. Love my Millville roots.

John Martin 

We used to eat a lot of boiled potatoes with everything, and my Mom also made a great ham and cabbage too!. We also ate a lot of that dried beef gravy over toast and mashed potatoes. When we were kids, I also remember getting the toast in warm milk "sick meal"...I remember it actually tasted very good even when you weren't sick! LOL
My mom used to make what she called beef stew, but it was much more like a soup than a thick stew. What was really different about it was when she put it in the pot to cook, she put a little frame made out of 2 wires across the top of the pot, and then rolled out a thick crust and put that over the top of the pot. When it was done, the crust had soaked up a lot of the flavor on the bottom side and it was nice and flaky on top.

Judi Everland Ware 

We used to have Peas and Dumplings. Fresh picked peas with bisquick dumplings. Was NOT a side dish - was dinner and was one of my favorites!!! I was even willing to shell all those darned peas in order to have it!

Rickie Oldfield Tripoli 

My grandmother made corned beef and potato soup. I make it too...a great winter meal. A can of corned beef and a chopped onion added to almost cooked cubed potatoes with the water they were cooked in. Add salt and pepper to taste. Boil for about 15 minutes or until onions are cooked and corned beef is cooked broken down throughout the soup. Delicious with biscuits or Italian bread.

Paul Riendeau 

I'll have to try to dig up my Mothers recipe for "Baked Glazed Spam with Cloves" or "Canned Salmon Casserole"!

Sharon Carangi 

Mine used to make spam with tomato sauce and brown sugar and then we had it with mashed potatoes sooo good.

Donna Roberts Horsfield 

Yes, my mom had a tough time teaching us how to make some of her dishes, because it was "some of this and some of that." 

Judi Grau Shute 

Not a recipe but....my mom's family lived in a prodominately Catholic neighborhood. Every Friday the fish truck (fishmonger) would come selling fresh fish. Even though we are Protestant we still ate fish every Friday.

From Donna C. Horsfield

Yum Yum Cake - Donna's Grandmother
1 c shortening
2 c sugar
2 c water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 box raisins

Boil above ingredients together and let cool. Dissolve 1 tsp baking soda in 1/2 cup of hot water and add to the boiled mixture. Add 4 cups of flour. Mix well. Grease and flour 9x13 pan. Bake 1 hour at 375. 

Molasses Cry Babies
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 c crisco (or other shortening)
1 1/2 heaping tsp baking soda
12 oz molasses
3/4 cup boiled coffee
3 eggs
2 lbs flour
1 tsp ginger

Place sugar, shortening, molasses, eggs, ginger, and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Mix baking soda with hot coffee slowly adding it to the coffee and using a bowl big enough so it won't overflow. It will bubble up. Add coffee mixture to the other ingredients and mix well. Slowly add the flour a little at a time. (I suggest buying a 2 ib bag of flour because its easier to measure that way).

Drop on greased cookie sheets by the tablespoon. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes - more or less according to size. Let cool and store in airtight container.

Corned Beef Hash
My mom just made her regular mashed potatoes and then added a can of corned beef, broken up and shredded and mixed into the potatoes.

Lima Beans and Corn
Mom would take fresh lima beans and cut corn off the cob and boil them in water and butter and then add a little bit of milk to it. That was a side dish for us in the summer.

Broiled Hamburger
Mom would take two pounds of hamburg, add some salt and pepper, shape it into a big square, pour catsup (ketchup) all over the top of it and then broil it for (I'm guessing) 20 minutes or so, until it no longer has red drippings coming from it.

Fresh Strawberry Pie
This is the best with fresh picked strawberries - not store bought. To die for!

4 c fresh strawberries, washed and capped
3 TB cornstarch
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
Few drops of red food coloring
1 baked 9 inch pie shell

Spread 2 cups of whole berries over bottom of cooled, baked pie shell. Mash or break up remaining berries. Add sugar, cornstarch, baking powder and mix thoroughly in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil gradually. Reduce heat and cook stirring constantly for about 10 minutes or until thick. Add a few drops of food coloring to deepen the mixture color. Cool and pour over whole berries in pie shell. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Top with whipped cream.

Bacon Soup
My mom made this when she could get bacon on sale. I tweaked it a bit to use the center cut bacon (less fat) but mom made a big pot of this and it usually lasted a couple meals.

2 lbs bacon (I use the 3 pack of 12 oz center cut from BJ's - less fat)
4 large cans (28 to 32 oz) tomato puree
2 large (46 oz) cans V8 veggie juice
1/2 1 can water (or add more to desired thickness - start with 1/2 can and then adjust when you add the macaroni)
1 lb elbow macaroni
1 large onion chopped
3 or 4 stalks celery chopped

Salt and pepper to taste (you don't need much salt because of the bacon) Cut bacon into 1 - 1/2 inch pieces. Try to separate pieces as you put them into the pot. Using large stock pot, cook bacon for about 10 minutes and then throw in the onion and celery and sauté for another 10 minutes. Add tomato puree, veggie juice, water, salt and pepper and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add the macaroni and cook for about 20 to 30 minutes. (You can cook the macaroni separately and add it, but it will require less water if done that way). This is where you adjust the amount of water, and you'll only have to cook it another 10 or 15 minutes. If you freeze some, you'll probably have to add a bit of water again.

Pepper Hash, Oyster Stew and SOS

Pepper Hash - Joyce DeHart-Gibson
Chop cabbage and green pepper and add equal parts of vinegar, sugar and water.  Store in the fridge in a glass container for a long time. I  also put celery seed in mine but you don't have to.

Oyster Stew - Margaret Konschak

1 pint oysters, shucked, with juice
1 quart milk or 1 quart half-and-half
1/4 cup butter
salt and black pepper
Old Bay (optional)

Cook oysters in their juice until edges just begin to curl.
Add milk, butter, salt and pepper.
Heat slowly, being careful to NOT boil.

Blind Stew - Carol L. Garrison
Same as Oyster Stew but leave out the oysters!

Dried Beef Gravy (SOS) - Anyone Who Ever Lived In Millville
                                                      1/4 lb dried beef
                                                      2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk Melt butter in skillet.

Tear the dried beef into small pieces & stir into the butter.  Brown meat lightly.  Stir in flour.  When flour is dissolved into butter, add milk, stirring constantly.  Salt and pepper to taste, but remember dried beef is salty.  Cook over low heat until the mixture thickens. Serve on toast, waffles, biscuits or almost anything.



Variations of SOS:
Robert Bruce Land - Graveyard Gravy:  Remove the meats and serve over either toast or biscuits. 

Butch Beebe - Red Eye Gravy:  My Grandmom and Mom would use bologna, hamburger or ham slice and make gravy.  Fry the ham slice and get some of its flavoring in the pan, add some butter and flour and then milk and a little coffee.  Back in the day, grandmoms and moms alike could stretch a dollar from here to Vineland and back when it came to cooking.  They had to.  And whatever they made tasted good and kept us alive.  Thank God for moms and grandmoms!!

Judi Grau Shute - Graveyard Stew:  Salted, buttered toast soaked in warm milk.  It was what we ate when we were very sick and could keep nothing else down.  Ready for the grave I guess is where it got its name.  My grandmom had 15 children and she always had family and friends in to eat.  She would make 6 pies at once.  Everything homemade.  This was before blenders and microwaves and anything convenient.  She used a wood stove with round grates on it with this special handle to remove them.  No one went hungry.

More Millville Favorites

Mother's Clam Pie - Bonnie Hopman Reynolds
Use a 9x13 pan.
10 chowder clams (reserve juice) Cut out the black and chop them up.
3 medium pre-baked potatoes
8 hard boiled eggs

For Pie crust:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 Tb salt
1 cup crisco
1/2 cup cold water (may need a little more)

Mix crust ingredeients together and roll out thin on a floured board.  Line pan with crust and then layer sliced potatoes, sliced eggs, clams, salt and pepper and then repeat with another layer.  Fill with clam juice and top with crust and seal edges tightly.  Cut slits in top and bake in a 400 degree oven for 50 minutes on the center rack and then 15 minutes on the lower rack.

You may wish to sprinkle a little Old Bay seasoning on top before the top crust is put on to give it a little more flavor.

From Ravyn Camilla Guiliani:
My grandfather George Oscar Pangburn Sr. Had a casserole he called "Salamagundy" and it was elbow macaroni cooked in a white sauce (like a bechamel/milk sauce you might cook scalloped potatoes in) with "hamburger" (ground meat), onions, celery, and stewed tomatoes (in chunks) some grated cheese and topped with toasted bread crumbs.

South Jersey Pork Chops - Sue Schwegel
8 loin pork chops
2 TB oil 1/4 c chopped celery
1/4 c choppede onion
16 oz tomato sauce
1 1/2 c water
2 TB brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp basil
1 c uncooked rice

In a skillet, brown chops in hot oil.  Remove chops and add celery and onion.  Cook until soft and drain.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Return chops to skillet, bring to a boil and reduce heat.  Simmer covered for 30 minutes.

Beef Goulash - Judy Gentile by way of Donna McCafferty Kalita
1 or 2 TB vegetable oil
1 lb ground meat
3 c uncooked medium egg noodles
2 1/2 c water
1 8oz can tomato sauce 1 (1 3/8 oz) envelope dry onion soup mix
chopped fresh parsley

Heat oil in a skillet.  Cook meat until light brown and drain.  Sprinkle uncooked noodles over meat.  Combine water tomato sauce and onion soupmix.  Pour over noodles and do not stir.  Cover and bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

Odorless Stewed Cabbage
Boil medium finely cut cabbage in salted water. Do not cover kettle, but keep cabbage well covered with water to avoid odor in cooking. When tender, drain and add a little milk, butter, and pepper and also a little thickened if desired. Cabbage cooked this way is white and digestible.

From Deni Finch-Frederick

The next few are from Deni Finch-Frederick.  Her note says that the following recipe came to her from her former mother-in-law whose husband was very actice in the GBBA for years.  Allegedly it is originally from the Union Hall on Sharp Street, across from Millville Manufacturing.  She remembers going there with her dad and the family in the 50's for supper once in a while and says that this tastes like what she remembers.

Union Hall Bar-B-Q
Cook 4-5 lbs. lean beef, covered with water, about 6 hours until it falls apart. Fry two onions in butter, then add 2 cups of meat stock.

Add 2 TB sugar, 1 bottle catsup, 1 bottle chili sauce, 1 bottle bar-b-q sauce, 3 TB Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp hot sauce, 2 TB vinegar, and 1 tsp salt and pepper. Stir in meat.

Raisin Sauce
Use with ham steak:
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 cup water
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup vinegar

Put raisins and water in pan. Heat slowly about 10 minutes to plump raisins. Add sugar and vinegar. Boil slowly about 15 minutes until thickened.

Yum Yum Cake
From Deni's mom's childhood - in the mid 1930s.
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup crisco
1/2 box raisins
1 cup cold water
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves

Mix together, creaming crisco and sugar together first. Sift together:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Add to first mixture. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Old Millville Favorites

PIEROGKI (Polish Dumplings) - Ron Risley 
With Sauerkraut Filling:
3 Cups Sauerkraut
1 Lg Onion. Chopped.
½ cup butter

Rinse sauerkraut thoroughly in warm water, then squeeze dry.  Sauté the onion in butter until golden brown; add sauerkraut and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Cook over low heat for about a half hour, until flavors are blended and mixture is no longer watery.  Set aside to cool.

With Potato and Cheese Filling:
3 Cups: mashed potatoes
1 Cup: pot style or large curd cottage cheese
4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp. Salt and Pepper

Mix well together and set aside.  Make dough by combining 2 Cups flour, 2 eggs, well beaten with ½ tsp. salt and ½ Cup of water.  Roll dough thin on floured board and cut into circles with large biscuit cutter.  In center of each circle, place 1 tablespoon of filling, then fold over the edges and press together with your fingers making certain that the edges are free of filling.  Place Pierogki into 3 Qts of boiling salted water and continue to boil them 4 minutes after the float.  Place into Colander and spray with a little cold water.  Garnish with melted butter or sour cream.

Kelly’s Clam Pie - Tack Kell 

In 3 quarts of water, simmer for 2 hours:
2 cut up carrots
3 stalks celery diced
5 medium onions diced
Add 3 hard boiled eggs sliced.  Dice and brown ½ lean salt pork and add to pot.  Add 2 ½ to 3 dozen chowder clams minced with their juice.  (8-9 quarts)  Add: parsley, garlic salt, oregano, salt and pepper. 1 ½ to 2 hours before serving, add noodles. (?)
*(The question mark was in the recipe so I left it there.)

The rest of the posts on this page are from Donna McCafferty Kalita.  She has sent many more recipes, but here are just a few to get started. 

Peas and Egg drop Dumplings - Janice McCafferty
Peel fresh peas..rinse cover peas with water when they come to a boil turn down to slight boil..add salt and pepper and some sugar cook about 50 min.the last 5 min. add butter (i use a half a stick) bring back to a boil...for dumplings i use 2 eggs,pinch of salt, scramble with fork and add flour slowly till it becomes like a thin pancake batter..drop by tsp. into peas and cook until tender..can only make when June peas are in season.

Fried Tomatoes and Gravy - Janice McCafferty and my granny also
3 or 4 large tomatoes.

3 T. flour
2 T. butter
2 c. milk
salt, pepper
Slice tomatoes 1/2 inch thick. cut up ends and save for gravy. salt and pepper slices and dredge in flour. heat fat in large iron skillet when hot brown tomato slices on both sides. remove ..and cover..add butter and chopped tomato pieces to pan; mash and saute' a few minutes...stir in 3 Tbls. flour; add milk and seasonings to taste, stirring until it becomes as thick as you like it. simmer about 4 min...pour over tomatoes...we always used white bread and added tomatoes on top and then poured gravy over..also would put on mashed potatoes or home fries...

Fried Tomatoes - Margaret Konschak
My mom's recipe for Fried Tomatoes is basically the same as the one above, but she always fried a pound of bacon in a heavy skillet first.  Then remove the bacon and fry the flour-dredged tomatoes in the bacon grease.  The rest of the directions are the same except she would leave the last two tomatoes in the pan and smash them with a fork to help make the gravy.

Corn Pudding - Granny Frances Brandriff
2Tbsp. cornstarch
2 large eggs
3/4 c. sugar (I reduce sugar)
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1 can creamed corn 1 (13oz ) can evaporated milk

Mix first 3 ingredients well. add milk and corn, mix again. butter a 2-inch deep casserole. pour mixture into dish. pour melted butter over top. bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until firm.. it will be like baked custard.

Molasses Cookies - Great Grandmom Bailey's
1 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
1 c. molasses
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. salt stir all together then add;
1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 1 cup hot water 4 1/2 c. cake flour stir in one egg

Drop by spoon on greased and floured cookie sheet. bake-350 degrees 12-15 min. can add nuts or raisins ...

Jersey Asparagus Soup
Clean and cut off ends of asparagus. (I use two bunches)
Cut asparagus into 2 inch pieces.
1 small to medium onion chopped.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Cover with water and bring to a slow boil and cook about 15 minutes.
Add diced potatoes (I use about 2 medium)
Cook another 20 minutes or until all is tender. Add a stick of butter. (or less)
Add about a cup of light cream or milk. Do not let the milk boil - just heat.
Then enjoy...you'll probably need to add more salt near the end.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

My original idea was to ask as many people as possible to share recipes with me that could be considered "Old Millville" originals - family favorites that you think were particular to Millville or more specifically your family, your neighborhood, "side of town", or nationality.

Financial constraints on the family budget caused many of our mothers and grandmothers (or grandfathers in my case) to be creative in the kitchen.  Some recipes were just dishes that were adapted from originals, some were originals meant to stretch a dollar to feed a family and others had funny names and ingredients that only we Millvillians have created.

I've received many responses.  This blog is my attempt to keep my promise and share the recipes with all who are interested.  I'll be adding recipes a few at a time, but will eventually include all that you've shared.  I've also been able to gather many other old, interesting recipes, home remedies, and family favorites that may not necessarily be Millville originals but I hope you'll find them as interesting as I have.  Suggestions for this blog are always welcome.

I'm new at this so bear with me.  I have much to learn about format and content, but with your help, maybe I'll pull this off.  Oh, and keep sending recipes and photos that you'd like to share.  This will be an on going project.

It's only fitting that I start with my grandmother's "Poor Man's Cake."  Louise Rau Konschak was from Jebenhausen, Germany.  She arrived in the United States in 1911with her uncle who sold Schoenhut toy pianos.  My most vivid memories of her are in the kitchen - just like you see in this photo - always in a dress - always with an apron - and usually with a smile.

Nanny Konschak

Poor Man's Cake - 350 - 40min. 
2 c sugar
2 c water
1 c crisco
1 15oz box raisins
2 tsp cinnamon

Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes.  Remove from fire and add 2 tsp baking soda and 1 cup of coffee.  Let mixture cool completely before adding 3 cups of flour.  Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan.