Our Food Heritage

Revis/Oswald

Sugar Cookies

Lucille Oswald Revis would make at least 25 dozen of these cookies during Christmastime and give them away as gifts. She always put them in a cardboard shirt box with waxed paper in between the two layers of cookies. We would freeze them and have Christmas cookies for weeks! This is her recipe.

1 batch makes 3-4 dozen 4 inch cookies

Ingredients:

5 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup milk

3/4 cup shortening

1 tablespoon vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift the dry ingredients together in large bowl

Mix the wet ingredients in a small bowl

Pour wet into dry

Mix with hands until blended

Cover and refrigerate overnight or until cold

Roll and cut

Bake at 350 until light brown, 8 minutes 15 seconds

Ice when cold.

Icing recipe

Ingredients:

1 stick margarine

1/2 cup evaporated milk

2 pounds powdered sugar

1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:

Melt margarine in small saucepan

Add milk

Bring to boil but DO NOT BOIL

Have sugar in a medium bowl

Add warm margarine/milk and mix

Add vanilla and mix

Frost cookies after they have cooled to room temperature

Oswald/File

Banana Nut Bread

Also described in the Strong-Willed Woman post.

Preparation time 30 minutes

Bake time 50 minutes

36 slices (2 loaves)

142 calories per slice

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose white flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 cups mashed banana (4-6 medium)

3/4 cup softened butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease two 8.5" x 2.5" loaf pans

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt

In a small bowl, stir lemon juice into mashed bananas

Mix butter and sugar well.

Add eggs to the butter and sugar, mix well

Add 1/3 dry ingredients, stir

Add 1/2 milk, stir

Add 1/3 dry ingredients, stir

Add the rest of the milk, stir

Add the rest of the dry ingredients, stir

Fold in bananas and nuts

Pour into loaf pans

Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes until knife comes out clean

try the knife in a couple of places to avoid the banana

Cool 10 minutes

Remove from pans

Wrap in foil

WAIT overnight before slicing.

It gets very moist and is better if you wait. Really!

Haupt - East Prussia

Rollmups (Rouladen)

This recipe is one that I found online and changed a bit to create the Rollmups that my Grandma Helen used to make. She didn't use a slow-cooker though. Other recipes use mustard and dill pickle in addition to the ingredients below.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 pound flank steak cut very thin

salt and pepper

1 cup chopped onion

8 ounces diced bacon (about 10 slices)

1/2 cup beef broth

Instructions:

Trim fat from steaks and season with salt and pepper.

Saute bacon until crisp

Drain bacon on paper towel

Saute onion until caramelized

Spread onion and bacon over each steak.

Roll steaks from short end (like a jelly roll)

Tie rolls in several places with a string or use skewers

Put steak rolls in slow cooker

Add 1/4 cup of broth

Cover pot

Add more broth if needed during cooking

Cook on LOW for 8-9 hours or HI 3 hours, then LOW 3 hours

Serve with boiled or mashed potatoes.

Haupt - East Prussia

Königsberger Klopse

This is a recipe handed down to our Bavarian cousin from his mother (Gustav Haupt's great-niece). He lives in Mitterteich near the Czech Republic border.

Meatballs:

1 pound hamburger

1 egg

¼ cup Ritz cracker (crumbled)

½ teaspoon majoram

Knead well, make 12 meatballs

Broth:

6-8 cups water or broth

½ teaspoon salt

1 sliced onion

¼ cup flour

2 tablespoons capers

2 tablespoons (to taste) apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

Instructions:

Put water/broth, salt, and onions in a wide sauce pan

Bring to boil

Reduce to low boil

Carefully add meatballs

Cook 10-15 minutes

Remove meatballs

Thicken and season broth:

Create a slurry with about ¼ cup flour and 1 cup of the broth

Add slurry to broth in pan and add capers

Season with

Vinegar—to taste, so go slow with it LOL

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

Add meatballs and boil briefly until everything is well heated.

Serve with boiled potatoes. Sprinkle whole plate with fresh parsley.

Here is a photo of Mitterteich, where our cousin lives.

Note: if you go to a foreign language website using Google Chrome, you can use the option in the URL space to translate automatically to English.

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