Here I am, another Tuesday, another Vintage Menu Madness! I have challenged myself to cook one vintage menu in its entirety from one of my Vintage Cookery Books. This is something I have really enjoyed and that I hope you also enjoy!
I have always enjoyed Vintage Cookbooks. It is a love that began when I was a child. My mother had an old cookbook in her bookcase that I used to love looking through. As an adult, I would copy recipes out of it every time I visited my mother. Finally one day she gave it to me. I was thrilled to get it.
Since then I have been collecting Vintage Cookbooks as and when I could. I did have to leave a lot of them in the UK when I moved back to Canada, save a few really special ones, but I have been slowly re-collecting them since my return.
This week I decided to do something a bit different than a supper/dinner menu. I decided to do a breakfast/brunch type of menu and it was a lot of fun. I did have to begin by making one of the special ingredients myself a week ahead. Spiced Apple Rings. This was not something that is readily available in Canada.
I decided to make my own from scratch. I found a recipe on Just A Pinch that I liked. It didn't use those cinnamon hot candies that most recipes call for. They are also not available where I live, and, to be honest, I didn't want that bright red color for them.
I was actually really pleased with how they turned out. They had a lovely flavor.
This week's menu was chosen from a Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook entitled the Menu Cookbook. I was able to buy one of these, lightly used, on Thrift Books to replace my original copy which got left behind in the UK. It was originally published in 1972.
I had started collecting these BH & G cookbooks when I was still in High School, and this was one of my favorites! I hated to have to leave it behind in England, but was so pleased to have been able to get another copy!
The menu I chose was for a family brunch and looked really appealing in the book. It contains foods from the four basic food groups and was considered to be quite nutritious. Included in the menu were:
Sausage Breakfast Bake
Ingredients
- 2 cups (260g) packaged pancake mix
- 1 1/4 cups (300ml) whole milk
- 2 large free range eggs
- 2 TBS salad oil
- 1 (14oz) jar of spiced apple rings
- 1 (8-oz/226g) brown-and-serve sausage links
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 13 1/2 X 8 3/4 X 1 3/4 inch baking dish and set aside.
- Whisk the pancake mix together with the eggs, milk and salad oil, beating with a rotary mixer until smooth. Pour this mixture into the baking dish.
- Drain the spiced apple rings, reserving the liquid to make the apple maple syrup. Halve each sausage link crosswise.
- Place the apple rings in a decorative manner on top of the pancake mixture, along with the sausage halves. Do it so that you can cut the pancake into square sized servings if possible, when done.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Serve hot, cut into squares with some of the syrup spooned over top.
Apple-Maple Syrup
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (80ml) of the spiced apple liquid/syrup
- 1/3 cup (80ml) water
- 1/3 (67g) granulated sugar
- 4 tsp cornstarch (corn flour)
- 1 TBS butter or margarine (I used butter)
- 3/4 cup (180ml) maple syrup or maple flavored syrup
Instructions
- Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together in a saucepan. Whisk in the spiced apple syrup and the water. Cook and stir over medium high heat until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken.
- Reduce the temperature to a low simmer and simmer for one minute further. Whisk in the maple syrup and the butter. Keep warm and serve drizzled over top of hot squares of the sausage breakfast bake.
Baked Eggs
Ingredients
- 6 large free range eggs
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 6 tsp whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Have ready a large shallow baking dish.
- Butter six custard cups really well. Break one egg into each and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. To each egg add 1 tsp of milk.
- Place into a shallow baking dish large enough to hold all of the cups. Add hot water into the baking dish to the depth of 1 inch.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until the eggs are firm.
My brother is visiting us from Ottawa at the moment and the three of us (my sister, he and I) have been spending this week visiting some of our old haunts and just enjoying each other's company.
Yesterday we went to Wolfville to visit the Farm Market there. Hennigar's Farm Market. This place has been around since the 1920's and was a favorite place of ours back in the day when I was going to Acadia University back in the 1970's. My brother also went to Uni there. He graduated, I did not. I had a child by then and it was hard going. I had always thought to go back one day, but life got in the way.
Altogether with the bottle deposit I spent $58.96, but in all truth I could have spent so much more than that. This farm market was a cornucopia of deliciousness and temptations! We will be back for sure. And maybe sooner than later lol
After having been so patient with us at the farm market my brother was rewarded with his tasty Jonny Burger with a side of Poutine! He was a happy camper. We were happy campers. A great time out was enjoyed by all! And interestingly enough most of it had something to do with food. Surprise! Surprise!
We did take a drive around our old High School (West Kings) afterwards and were surprised by how much it had changed, but then I did graduate 50 years ago now myself. Change is unfortunately inevitable.
Welcome to my weekly Meals of the Week Post. The one where I share with you, my readers, all of the deliciousness that I have enjoyed for my main meals over the past seven days! Lots of deliciousness.
My brother has been here with us for most of this week, so it has been double the pleasure! We had not seen him in over a year. In that year we have all had Covid at one time or another, and bad colds and my brother even had Lyme Disease, so it has really been really nice to be with each other at this time and to be healthy! My father is also turning 90 in January, so it has been super special as we don't really know now many more visits like this we will have with all of us together! We have been making the most of it!
A lot of my meals, in fact pretty much all of them have been shared with family members, which is quite unusual for me. I usually eat most of my meals on my own here. I do try to eat well balanced meals and I try hard not to eat out of tins and boxes. Not that I am adverse to using the odd convenience food. I enjoy something like that every now and then, but mostly I like to cook from scratch.
And I love taking you all on the journey with me. Just because you are a person living on your own, that doesn't mean that you can't eat a delicious and a varied menu! Here is all my tastiness of the previous week! I hope it will inspire you to want to cook some tastiness for yourself!
SUNDAY September 24th - Dinner at Cindy's
Usually on Sunday's I have dinner with my family at my sister Cindy's. Occasionally they will all come here. This week she cooked us a delicious Roast Beef Dinner, which is my father's favorite. This week I am sharing with you my recipe for a delicious Slow Cooker Pot Roast. Its very good and has a fabulous tasting gravy. I also have a recipe on site for a Classic Por Roast for Two, which is for the smaller family.
For dessert we had sugar free jello with squirty cream. We all love that and as most of us are diabetics, its a good choice to have after a meal like that one.
MONDAY, September 25th - Easy Cheesy Sausage Chowder
My sister and brother in law were going to the airport to pick up my brother who was spending the week down here with us all the way from his home in Ottawa. My sister usually cooks for dad every night, but as she was not going to be there, I cooked his dinner for him on this day.
We had a delicious Sausage Chowder, which is thick, hearty and delicious. Its also a very economical way to stretch a little bit of sausage meat! I used only two thick mild Italian sausages for this. My father loved it. He is not one for anything much out of the ordinary. I served it with hot Buttermilk Biscuits, and then an Oaty Apple Crumble for dessert. He always looks for something sweet at the end of every meal.
TUESDAY, September 26th - Mary Berry's Cottage Pie with Cheesy Topping
This was my first dinner shared with my brother. My sister hosted on this night. She had made a lovely cottage pie, which we enjoyed with some salad on the side. You cannot beat a tasty cottage pie for comfort food!
This one I am sharing is one of Mary Berry's recipes for a delicious cottage pie which can be baked as one large pie, or several smaller ones. Or a large pie and a couple of stuffed Jacket potatoes. I like to use a fork to rough up the top. Very easily done.
WEDNESDAY, September 27th - Vintage Menu Madness
On Wednesday I shared my Vintage Menu Madness. Once a week I like to cook a whole vintage menu from one of my vintage cookbooks. This week it was Lazy Daisy Meatballs, Scalloped Potatoes, Pineapple Coleslaw, buttered beets and for dessert Lemon Surprise Cake.
It went together very well and was totally delicious! We all really enjoyed it. Especially those meatballs. Its the simple things in life which really bring us the most joy!
THURSDAY, September 28th - Baked Haddock with Buttery Cracker Topping
We enjoyed dinner at my sisters with a lovely fish dinner. This is one of my recipes that my sister also enjoyed. Flaky, perfectly cooked fish baked beneath a buttery herby cracker topping. Fresh Lemon is squeezed over top when you go to serve it for an exquisite finish. We all love this.
She served it with some rice and mixed vegetables (cauliflower and broccoli) We had pie for dessert. Cranberry & Apple. The best part is being able to enjoy these meals together.
FRIDAY, September 29th - Pizza Night
Whenever my brother is down he likes to treat us all to a pizza night from my cousin's pizza place in town, The Pizza Factory. My cousin Hal has been serving up pizza here in the Valley since 1988. He makes a really great pizza. We had one with the works and then a Hawaiian. Yes, we DO like pineapple on pizza. We were too stuffed for dessert, however dad wasn't and so he had a piece of my Cranberry & Apple Pie. There was one left.
The pizza I am showing you above is my Chicken Fajita Pizza. Its delicious! Not only is it quick and easy to make, but it uses store cupboard ingredients for the most part!
Just to tantalize you further, here is a picture of my fish and chips. Its haddock in a light tempura batter served with Beer Fries. (They are in a beer batter.) Served with coleslaw and tartar sauce. Yummilicious!
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