Musings of a Mentor: November 2007

Colonial Menu

All the kids randomly drew recipes from the book Revolutionary Recipes, Colonial Food, Lore and More by Patricia B.Mitchell.

The menu for our meal:
Buckwheat Cakes (we ended up putting the Brown Betty over these)
Hannah Glasse's Onion Soup
Oyster Stew
Crab (we used Salmon) Cakes
Baked Ham
Martha Washington's Fricassee over egg noodles
George Washington's Pot Pie
Sally Lunn Bread
Marblehead Pudding
Amelia Simmon's Molasses Gingerbread with "Melted Snow" (sweet yogurt) topping
Lemon Cheesecake
Apple Brown Betty
Wassail

I think most of them were suprised by how similar these foods are to their favorite comfort foods. The ginger bread and marblehead pudding were the strongest flavors because they were not used to molasses, over all the meal was a huge success.

Chicken Pot Pie

4 cups chopped chicken
2 full cups cooked veggies (your favorite mix)
2 cups creamy chicken gravy

Mix these together and put in the bottom of the casserole dish.

1 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter

Mix this together and pour on top of the chicken mixture.

Bake at 425 for 45 minutes or until the crust is golden.

This was supposed to be George Washington's favorite food. The kids really liked it too!

Martha Washington's Fricassee

1 cut up chicken, no bones
1 tsp mace
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 lb butter
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp each of fresh: parsley, majoram, basil, thyme and tarragon
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup chicken gravy
1 tbspoon vinegar
1/4 of a lemon, miniced

Season the chicken with the spices and fry it in the butter.
Remove chicken, pour off all but a tbspoon of the butter.
Add herbs, wine, egg yolks to the butter stirring gently, but constantly, then add broth and gravy stir until mixture thickens.

Add back the chicken, vinegar, and lemon and cook til the chicken is warm. Serve over noodles or rice.

Lemon Cheesecake

1/2 lb of butter
1 lb of sugar
12 eggs
5 spoonfuls of very heavy cream
2 whole large lemons (juice, pulp and zest)

Mix it all together put into a pastry shell (we used a frozen one). Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes then at 200 degrees for at least 1 hour.

Sorry no finished picture, this one went FAST.

Marblehead Pudding

Mix 1 cup molasses with 1 tsp of baking soda. Then add 2 and 1/2 cups of flour and a pinch of salt. Then add 1/2 cup water and 3 tart apples that have been finely chopped. Put in steamer and steam for 2 hours.