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Recipes

Cook Out Time!

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One of the many joys of summer is planning and enjoying a meal outside, with or without a BBQ.  One of my favorite dishes is Potato Salad because of the many variations that can be made.  Here is the recipe for Creamy Potato Salad featured in the book “The Great Potluck Cookbook”  from Good Housekeeping.  Come borrow this book or enjoy another one of the many waiting for you at the Gardiner Public Library.

 

CREAMY POTATO SALAD

Makes 10 side-dish servings

 

4 pounds red potatoes, unpeeled

2 ½ tsp salt

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1 Tbl sugar

1 Tbl spicy brown mustard

¼ tsp ground black pepper

½ cup mayo

2 stalks celery, thinly sliced crosswise

 

  1. In 4-quart saucepan, place potatoes, 2 tsp salt, and enough water to cover; heat to boiling over high heat.  Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until potatoes are fork-tender, 10 to 15 minutes.  Drain; cool slightly.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large serving bowl, combine vinegar, sugar, mustard, pepper, mayo, and remaining ½ tsp salt.
  3. When potatoes are cooked enough to handle, cut each into quarters or eights if large.  Add celery and warm potatoes to dressing in bowl; gently stir with rubber spatula until well coated.  Let potato mixture stand 30 minutes to absorb dressing, stirring occasionally.
  4. Cover and refrigerate until completely cold, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

 

A 1 Diner

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In 2006 a local publisher, Tilbury House, published a book by Sarah Rolph that celebrated a local diner, the A 1 Diner.  The book gives a history of the diner featuring both those who work behind the counter and those in the kitchen.  Many recipes that have become customer favorites are revealed in the book.  Below is one of them.  For more of these wonderful recipes and to enjoy the history of this local institution, visit the library to borrow the book, A 1 Diner: real food, recipes, and recollections by Sarah Rolph.

Hazel Newell’s Squash Custard Pie:
This pie is unusual in that it separates during cooking into a squash layer and a custard layer.
5 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1 cup canned squash puree (fresh squash has too much moisture)
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1  9 inch pie shell, uncooked (bottom only)
Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the eggs and the sugar with a whisk.
Add the squash, the milk, the cream, and the vanilla, and mix, but do not beat.
Pour into the large pie shell and bake for 60-60 minutes until just set.  Chill before serving.

Picnic Like It’s 1928!

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Green grass, blooming buds, and sunny skies all make us want to get outside and savor every minute.  In the Archives, the budding season makes us look at old treasures with new eyes.  This week, a 1928 cookbook compiled by Christ Church Parish Helpers made me wonder what tasty treats might make a perfect step-back-in-time picnic.

Here’s a selection of some of the most seasonally appropriate offerings for an outing.  See if anything strikes your fancy and let us know how they turn out (we’d be happy to taste test samples!)   And while we’re on the subject, what are some of your own long-standing family favorites?  Share some with us on Facebook — and have a very Happy Picnic Season!

  

This is the most marked-up recipe in the book – it must be good!

 

 

Enjoy!
Dawn Thistle, Special Collections Librarian