So I previously mentioned that I learned to cook from the back of the package, newspapers and magazines so here are a few samples from my repertoire.
Food companies have used the back of their package (pretty much ever since they invented packaging) to give one a recipe that uses their product. So you don’t really need to keep a copy of the recipe, it will always be there when you need it (you hope). And hopefully the recipe will be adjusted for the constantly shrinking package size.
This recipe has proved to be quite popular every time I have made it (interesting that this and the previous recipe use butterscotch). This recipe came from the Jamestown Sun (in North Dakota), and it looked unusual, so I tore it out and tried it. Definitely a keeper, I think it might have been in an article about Christmas cookies or possibly not. I’ve been making this recipe for years, but only for special occasions. (It’s so good I don’t really want to share the recipe with just anyone.)
Here’s a nice example of a recipe that I kept from a magazine, again the recipes are from a food company. Although I saved the entire page, I have only tried the pumpkin bread, but I also use this recipe for banana bread, it’s a pretty basic sort of thing. This recipe has been floating around the house since sometime in the late 70’s (maybe it needs a touch of butterscotch).
I did learn how to cook some things from my mom (honestly, not just sweets), I think I asked her for this recipe to put in one of those local cookbooks. This is something that Mom made often, because it didn’t require eggs or butter, and us kids were not exactly gourmets. She probably learned to make this when she was a young woman during WWII (before invention of butterscotch morsels).
As you can see I still know how to make lots of sweets, but these things require a crowd to gobble them up, and I seldom have one. ( I made a half recipe of the cookies for my group, and I still ended up eating a number of them. Oh well that’s the danger.) Food is meant to be shared and most everyone will take at least a nibble of a freshly baked sweet.
I had a recipe for a “Dump Cake” that I probably gave to my daughter because it had more than three ingredients. But it was easy—required opening a lot of cans and dumping the contents into a rectangular baking dish. Not a very appetizing name, but I thought it tasted good.
Before I had my three-ingredients-or-less rule I made cookies from a recipe on a jar of molasses. I loved those cookies; sometimes I ate so many I felt sick. And then one time when I bought a new jar of molasses, the recipe wasn’t there. I didn’t bother to find a replacement recipe; I just never made them again. I’m not sure I would like molasses cookies now.