Hold Fast Your Dreams

Hold fast your dreams!

Within your heart

Keep one still, secret spot

Where dreams may go,

 And, sheltered so,

May thrive and grown.

O keep a place apart,

Within your heart,

For little dreams to go!

Think still of lovely things that are not true.

Let wish and magic work at will in you.

Be sometimes blind to sorrow. Make believe!

Forget the calm that lies

In disillusioned eyes.

Though we all know that we must die,

Yet you and I

May walk like gods and be

Even now at home in immortality.

We see so many ugly things-

Deceits and wrongs and quarrelings;

We know, alas! We know

How quickly fast

The color in the west.

The bloom upon the flower

The bloom upon the breast

And youth’s blind hour

Yet keep within your heart

A place apart

Where little dreams may go,

May thrive and grow.

Hold fast-hold fat your dreams!

                        L. Driscoll

Pumpkins

            Pumpkins are as much a part of our American heritage as Betsy Ross. No doubt our forefathers served pumpkins, or “pumpkions” as they were called, at their first Thanksgiving feast.

            The pumpkins sustained the Pilgrims for many years. Easy to grow if offered fruit for the table and for the animals. Pilgrims used pumpkins for pies, puddings, tarts and custards, and served them at any meals.

Pumpkin Bars

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 16-oz. can pumpkin

1 cup salad oil

2 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

dash of salt

1-1/2 cups nuts (optional)

            Mix the sugar, eggs, pumpkin and oil together. Sift four, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt together. Add the dry ingredients (and nuts, if desired) to the batter. Pour into a greased and floured cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes

Frosting:

3 oz. cream cheese

3/4 stick butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

            Cream butter, cream cheese, and vanilla together well. Add powdered sugar. Spread onto cooled bars and cut.

Cutting dessert bars is easier if you score the bars as soon as the pan comes out of the oven. When the bars cool, cut along the scored lines.

Over-ripe bananas can be peeled and frozen in a plastic container until it’s time to bake bread or cake.

Nut breads are better if stored 24 hours before serving.

Some like it cold, some like it hot.

Some freeze while others smother;

And by some fiendish, fatal plot,

They marry one another.

Today, when newlyweds father their nests, you’ll usually find four parents who have been plucked.

The person who tries to dodge responsibilities usually finds the detour rougher than the road.

            To clean Teflon , combine 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons baking soda and 1/2 cup liquid bleach. Boil in stained pan for 5 to 10 minutes or until the stain disappears. Wash, rinse, dry, and condition with oil before using the pan again.

            To decorate cookies with chocolate, place cookies on a rack over waxed paper. Dip the tines of a fork with chocolate, and wave the fork gently back and forth making wavy lines.

            A gadget that works well for decorating sugar cookies is an empty plastic thread spool. Simply press the spool into the dough, imprinting a pretty flower design.

            Some holiday cookies require an indent on top to fill with jam or chocolate. Use the rounded end of a honey dipper to make the indent.

            Tin coffee cans make excellent freezer containers for cookies.

Harvest Casserole

3 pounds hamburger

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups celery, chopped

1 8oz. package egg noodles

1 can evaporated milk (or 13 ounces. Rich milk).

3 101/2 oz. cans cream of mushroom soup

1/4 pound Velveeta cheese, grated

            Cook hamburger and onion together. Cook celery in a small amount of margarine over low heat. Cook noodles as directed on package; drain grease from meat. Add all ingredients together and put in one large casserole or several small ones. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly. This casserole makes approximately 1 gallon. It freezes well either before or after cooking in the oven.

Honey Orange Cranberry Sauce

3 apples, peeled, finely chopped

Juice from 2 oranges

1 stick cinnamon

3 cups cranberries

Grated rind of 1 orange

2/3 cup honey

2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate

            Combine apples, orange juice and cinnamon stick in saucepan. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring to mash apples. Add cranberries, orange rind and honey. Simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes or until sauce thickens and cranberries pop, stirring occasionally. Cool. Remove cinnamon stick; stir in orange juice concentrate. Makes 15 servings.

Miracle Whipped Salad

2 (3-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons Miracle Whip

1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

10 maraschino cherries, drained well and cut up

12 large marshmallows, cut up

1 cup whipping cream, whipped

            Beat cream cheese and Miracle Whip until fluffy. Stir in pineapple, cherries and marshmallows. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into 9 inch dish and chill several hours or overnight. Makes 6 servings.

Tip: For a special light dessert, prepare 1 (6 ounce) package strawberry or orange Jell-O as directed on package. Pour into
9 X 13 inch dish to set. While still sticky on top, spread Miracle Whipped Salad evenly over Jell-O; chill. Cut into squares to serve.

                        Vegetable Cakes and Pies

            Old fashioned vegetable cakes and pies are still the delightful country kitchen treats they were in Grandma’s day. No one really knows when country cooks began using vegetables in desserts. Perhaps, a pioneer cook who did not have flavoring for baking wanted to give them a new taste. Most of the time, the good, rich taste of the desserts came from her “secret ingredients.”

Old Fashioned Mincemeat Pie

3 cups prepared mincemeat

1-1/2 cup coarsely broken walnuts

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup brandy

Pastry for two-crust pie

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 tablespoon light cream

Pastry for two-crust, 9 inch pie

            Combine walnuts, mincemeat, brown sugar and brandy; refrigerate to allow flavors to mingle. You can do this for several days. Roll out pastry for bottom crust, spread with two tablespoons butter; fold into thirds; refrigerate until well chilled; repeat with top crust. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out pastry crust. Fill with undrained mincemeat mixture. Adjust top crust; brush top with light cream. Bake 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

Quick Granola

1/2 cup sunflower oil

1/2 cup honey

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup coconut

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup sunflower seed

1 cup blanched almonds

1/2 cup dry milk powder

2/3 cup raisins

2/3 cup dried apples, chopped

2/3 cup dried apricots, chopped

2/3 cup dates, chopped

2/3 cup dried pineapple, chopped

1 cup “M&M’s Plain Chocolate Candies

Mary Hoff worked at the Platteville Journal  before she got married.  After a few years, she started a column at the Tri-County Press and also covered Cole Acres Notes. When the Tri-County Press was sold to Bill Hale in Lancaster,  he asked to carry the column in the Grant County Independent.  Mary says she writes, "just to keep my mind from getting rusty." 

mjandmjh@pcii.net

"Be sure to send me your comments, recipes, or helpful tips."