My grandmother’s recipe box is filled with just those sorts of recipes.  A few years ago, as her health began to decline, I put together a cookbook, filled with her recipes, as well as family photos of food and eating.  We are Italian/Portuguese, so there were LOTS of photos of us eating over the years!  This was one of the recipes that was contained in the book, and it remains one the yummiest and easiest thing that I could share with you.  Please give it a try, and taste the goodness that vintage baking recipes have to offer!

This was the first baked good that I ever made for my husband when we were dating.  I am not a confident baker, so I enlisted the help of my grandmother, Priscilla.  She helped me to make this, to bring to his home, to meet his mom.  It was a hit, and for years, Arthur referred to me affectionately as his “little huckle buckle”.  This remains one of my all time favorite recipes, great for brunch, for dessert, and of course, for meeting your future mother-in-law!

Priscilla’s Blueberry Huckle Buckle

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

1/2 cup milk or cream

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups cleaned blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375.  Grease a 9 inch round pan.

Cream the sugar and butter together.  Add the egg.  Stir in the milk, flour, baking powder and salt.  Shake your damp blueberries with a tablespoon or so of flour, and add to your batter.

Topping:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup butter

Mix all together, forming a somewhat clumpy mixture.  Sprinkle evenly on the top of the batter.

Bake at 375 for 30 to 40 minutes.  Top with whipping cream, ice cream, or just enjoy plain!

** Double the recipe to fill an 11×13 pan.  **

Elizabeth Richard Gifts

If you are not used to entertaining for a crowd, the thought of putting a brunch or dinner together can make anyone break out in a nervous cold sweat.  No need to fret!  If you break down your event into small steps, and think out each one in advance, you will fly through it with no problems!

Get yourself a notebook, and start to jot down ideas on the menu, including beverages.  Then make notes on the guest list.  From there:

• Figure out if you will need extra chairs and tables.  Ask your guests first if you can borrow anything from them.  If you still come up short, turn to your local party store for a list of their rental items.  It is not expensive to rent chairs or tables, so give it a shot!  It will be one less thing for you to stress about.  If you are borrowing from guests, pick up ahead of time.  While it would in theory be easier for you to have the guest bring on the day of the event, you really do need to have the chairs/tables set before the event.

• Pick a time for your event, and add an hour.  Why?  Because we always think that we will be ready earlier than we are.  Give yourself an hour cushion, for last minute details, or even for a shower.

• Don’t try out new recipes on the day of your event.  Plan to try them on your family or co-workers in advance.  You can tweak the recipe, or make important notes on the preparation.

• Gather all of your recipes at once, and construct a complete grocery list.  i am not guaranteeing that you will not need that one last emergency trip to the store, but this will certainly decrease those odds!  Don’t forget to include limes, lemons, olives, or anything else that you need for both beverages and garnishing.

• Be sure to balance your menu with beverages (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic), breakfast foods, savory foods, and desserts.

• Try not to make anything that needs to be served piping hot.  Choose foods that can be enjoyed at a moderately warm temperature, or at room temperature.  If you have foods that just cannot be served any other way but hot, consider investing in a hot plate or warming tray.  Also remember that double boilers, crock pots and the like can also be useful in keeping foods at their warmest.

• Plot out your cooking plan on paper.  What needs to be started a day or two in advance?  Write it down.  Let it become your roadmap to a smooth event.  Time everything out, and figure out your stove/oven capacity.  This will provide you with less stress when the big day arrives.

• Target the dishes on your menu that can be prepared ahead of time.  Can you chop onions to prepare?  Can you pre-cook a side dish (as long as it can be reheated without losing something in translation)?  I try to do all of my chopping and cutting the day before.  I also assemble casseroles, so that cooking is the only thing that I need to do on the event day.  The more you can get done early, the better!

• Pull out all of your dishes the night before.  Set your table with the tablecloth, the salt & pepper shakers, etc.  Do all of the things that you can do ahead of time.  You do not want to be frantic on the day of the event.

• It’s OK to use paper plates or disposable cups.  You need to do what is easiest and best for YOU!

• Take out all of your serving dishes and flatware, and label with sticky notes.  This will help you to see what, if anything, is still needed for the big event.

• Be sure that you have clean up help designated prior to the event.  Have enough gloves, dish towels.  Be sure that your dishwasher is empty, and ready to take on a new load.

• Don’t stress about decorating for your event.  Clean your house, put out fresh hand towels, you know, the basics.  Get some fresh flowers from your local florist.  Once all of your food is out, no one would be looking at any decorations, they would only be able to focus on the delicious spread that you put out in front of them.

• Above all else, have fun.  Don’t stress.  At the end of the day, as long as your guests left with full bellies and smiles, then you hosted a successful event!

I am not much of a baker.
It is way too precise for me.  Too much measuring, to many things that MUST be done in the proper order.  Cooking is my forte.

A pinch of this, a pinch of that.  Let’s make some substitutions, you  know the drill!  But every now and again, I am required to put my baking hat on, and make the best of it.  I made this recipe recently for my mom’s birthday, and it was heavenly!  So good that two months later, my daughter, Gillian, requested it for her birthday as well.

The cake is moist and delicious, and pretty much fool proof.  It’s an easy cake to prepare.  Try adding crushed Oreos to the cake batter too, just to ratchet it up a notch.  Also, I use Double Stuff Oreos in the frosting, because let’s face it, the center of an Oreo is the main draw, right?!  I suggest making the frosting while the cake is in the oven.  Set it in the fridge, and remove 30 minutes prior to frosting the cake, to get in back to spreading consistency.  Let me know how you enjoy it, and if you would make any other changes to it.

Oreo Cake

One package devil’s food cake mix

One package instant chocolate pudding

1 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup water

Pre-heat the oven to 350.  Grease two 9 inch round pans.

Mix all ingredients together.  Divide the batter and pour into the two pans.  Bake for 25-35 minutes.  Cool cake completely before frosting.

Frosting:

2 sticks butter

2 tbs vanilla

2 cups confectioners sugar

4 tbs milk

about 2 dozen chopped Oreos

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add milk slowly.  When light and fluffy, fold in chopped Oreos.  Tops frosted cake with additional Oreos.

Elizabeth Richard Gifts: Life is a Celebration

Stationary and notecards

I love Facebook.  It is a lot of fun, the pictures and the jokes are great.

I miss snail mail.  The only thing that I get in the mailbox these days are bills.  And lots of them.  Yuck!

Why doesn’t anyone send cards through the mail anymore?

Last summer, this was something that really irked me.  I received no cards in the mail for my birthday, not even from my parents or my Godparents (sorry to throw you all under the bus, but it’s true!).

So I say:  Get your pen, find some stamps, I declare that this will be The Year of the Card!!  I have decided I will be making a concerted effort to mail out more greeting cards, birthday or otherwise.  Let’s face it, Facebook birthday wishes are grand, they make your day fun, but it’s nothing like the feeling of holding a card in you hand, and reading the sentiment contained within.

I now try to send out birthday greetings to all of my family and close friends, hoping that they get excited when they open an envelope that does not contain a bill, but rather, contains love and good wishes.  I hope all of you have the desire to bring the snail mail card back, one person at a time.  We could start a new revolution of good feelings, or at least keep a postman employed a little longer!!

Of course, there are many opportunities for us to send a card through the mail.  I happen to be a stickler not only about birthday greetings, but about thank you notes as well.  Not only do I send them out on a regular basis, but I insist that my children write them for the gifts that they receive.

Why not a text or an email thank you?  I think we have covered that, but just in case you didn’t get it, it’s because a handwritten note shows effort, shows that you care.

When should a thank you note be sent?  Good question.  The simple answer, whenever you feel in your heart that you need to express your gratitude to someone for something.  Send out a thank you note for not only gifts, but for good deeds, for a job or school interview, for an overnight stay, a dinner invitation, a party, etc.

How long do I have to send a thank you note out?  You should try to get the note out within two weeks of receiving the gift/invitation/good deed.  If it takes you longer, it is OK, still send the note.  The worst thing that you can do is to not send it out at all.

For shower gifts, I think that you should try to get the notes in the mail within one month.  And for wedding gifts, you technically have up to a year to send out notes, but please don’t take that long.  Shoot for three to four months.  In fact, the worst thing that you can do is to not say thank you for a wedding or shower gift.  There is no excuse.  Try to write your notes as gifts are received, prior to the wedding.  This way you can get those notes finished before you walk down the aisle, giving yourself the satisfaction of finishing a task!

Gift idea:  Order the bride or mom-to-be personalized stationery, and pre-stamp and pre-address the envelopes, based on the list of attendees to the shower.  Now all the bride needs to do is write the notes!

Should all children send out thank you notes?  It is important to get kids into the habit of writing notes to people, at any age, especially in this increasingly electronic age.  Consider ordering some fun, personalized notes for your son or daughter.  Embellish the notes with fun figures or stickers, and it may just be the little something extra that gets them to sit down and put pen to paper.  If they are novice writers, you can help them by writing the meat of the note, and let them put their signature on it.

What should a thank you note say?  A thank you note should start with the acknowledgement of the exact gift that was received.  You should also tell the giver what you are going to do with it/use it for.  Next, you want to tell them why it was a special gift for you to receive.  Also let them know how much it means to you that they were thinking of you.  Say what is in your heart, and you can never go wrong!

Are there different types of stationery to consider?  There are many different types and styles of stationery to invest in.  I like to have personalized cards available to me, but I also keep general boxed note cards and thank you cards on hand.  For informal notes, I like to use correspondence cards, which are flat cards with no fold.  Fold over notes are more common, and are also better suited to more formal note-sending.  Sheets of stylish paper will dress up any letter that you send out.  Pay a visit to your local gift or stationery store to see what best suits your needs and your personality.

Tips of the Trade:  I also find it helpful to stockpile birthday cards, sympathy cards, and good luck cards.  Again, this helps me to be ready at any time to drop someone a note in the mail.  If I do not need to make a special trip to the store, it puts less stress and pressure on my already stress-filled life!

Make it even easier!  Keep a small box with pens, markers, stamps and your cards nearby.  When the need to write a note someone arises, you have all of your tools in one place, making it an easy and efficient task!

Happy note writing, and feel free to drop me a line, to let me know how it is working out for you!

Lori Greene is a practitioner of Savvy Style, as well as the owner of Elizabeth Richard Gifts in Waterbury, Connecticut.  Visit her on Twitter @elizrichgifts or follow on Facebook at Elizabeth Richard Gifts.

We like to move things around in the store. We like to give displays a fresh new look every now and again. I think you can see where I’m headed with this.

One day we decided to move our Le Creuset line to a wall cabinet. We figured (and rightly so) that a more vertical display would be good for the range of colors that we carry. Well, glass shelves and cast iron pots don’t necessarily mix well. As the final pieces were being added to the shelves, they gave way, crashing down, and scaring a whole bunch of customers and employees in the process. No one was hurt. I did not get upset about the broken items. I asked that the stock person start to clean it up, and that was when it hit me. Don’t throw anything away. Let’s save it. For what? I’m sure she wondered. I was not sure of why at the time, but I figured that we could do something with it.

Fast forward to my birthday, and to the cart that my husband was building for my smoker grill dome (yes, I own my own smoker grill dome, tha

t is fodder for another blog). He remembered my box of broken dishes, and asked my daughter to come up with something artistic. She painstakingly went through each and every broken plate, mug and bowl, choosing her color scheme, and cutting each piece to size. The result: A mural on my cart, which serves as a hotplate (practical), yet also serves as a reminder to repurposing, and more importantly, showcases my daughter’s talent and her understanding of what makes her mother tick.

So go ahead, break something. Don’t be scared. You never know what good can come from it!

In the Kitchen: Portuguese Kale Soup (Caldo Verde)