Almost Instant Hutch Update: Green is the New Orange!

An extremely generous co-worker and friend gave me a hutch several months ago.  I absolutely loved it, and not just because of the low, low price point!  It is beautiful, with two glass shelves, a light, and windowed doors in a top area that is perfect for displaying breakables like my hurricane lanterns and some of my great-grandmother's china.  On bottom there is a solid single-doored area for storage.  It is an old-fashioned and genuinely lovely piece of furniture.

OK, except for one thing: at some point someone painted the original back of the hutch orange.  Really, really orange.  And streaky, because they didn't spring for multiple coats of paint to get it even.

I lived with the orange for a while, thinking I would paint the back when I made some other decisions about painting my cheap living room furniture.

Eventually, I realized that I didn't want to do what the previous owners did.  Just painting over the orange wouldn't bring back the niceness of wood grain, and if I wanted to change it later I would just be adding more coats of paint.

Enter my genius plan: cover the orange with fabric!  I found a great microsuede-like fabric in a dark green that was very similar to the fabric covering my living room chair and ottoman.  I used simple push pins (though I had to hammer them into the hard wood) to attach it, then put the glass shelves back into their original positions.  I think it turned out really nice.  It is colored, but is sort of neautral in that coloring...and I can change it quickly and easily anytime I want to!

Retro Recipes: Fruit Cocktail Cookies

 

The second recipe of the two that I completed for the Nom-Nom Baking Challenge at Work was for Fruit Cocktail Cookies (see the first recipe here).  I always loved fruit cocktail as a kid--the cherries were my favorite part--so it seemed like something worth trying.

I'll put the original recipe and then my modern, updated version with more information that might help people who aren't experienced bakers or who aren't used to using old recipes.

Three things to note about this recipe:

• The cookies, as I made them, turned out kind of like little fruit cakes in texture.
• The original recipe said that the raisins and nuts were optional.  I added them and some extra cherries leftover from making the Cherry Nut Loaf.  I would not recommend leaving them out; I think the cookies would be really bland without them.  And if you do leave them out, you should definitely swap them for other fruit and/or nuts. 
• This recipe is really large; I made nearly 6 dozen cookies and still had some extra dough.
• I didn't have any cloves, so I made do with a combo of other spices that I have.  

Original Recipe, as it appeared in Adventures in the Kitchen, the 1954 Waverly Lutheran Church Cookbook:
1 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
3 beaten eggs
1 c. raisins (may omit)
2 c. well drained finely diced fruit cocktail
1 1/2 c. nuts (optional)
1 tsp. vanilla
Sift together 1 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. B. P., 4c. flour, 1 tsp. each of cloves and cinnamon.  Mix well.  Drop by teaspoonful on lightly greased cookie sheet, Bake at 400 degrees until lightly browned.

--Mrs. Sanford Anderson

Modern Version:

Ingredients:

• 1 c. margarine
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. white sugar
• 3 beaten eggs
• 1 c. raisins or other dried fruit (craisins would probably be yummy!)
• 2 c. well drained, finely diced fruit cocktail (this is more than 1 can, but less than 2)
• 1 1/2 c. chopped nuts (I used walnuts)
• 1/4 c. (or more) chopped maraschino cherries
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 4c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1 tsp. Penzey's baking spice   

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  
2. Cream together margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar.  
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla.  
4. Mix in all fruit and nuts.  
5. In a separate bowl, sift together salt, baking powder, baking soda, flour, and all spices.  
6. Mix dry and wet ingredients together.  
7. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (I used foil sprayed with Pam spray on cookie sheets).  
8. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until lightly browned.  

Retro Recipes: Cherry Nut Loaf

At work we have an email group called NomNomNom, also known as "Where the Treats At?"  In general, people send announcements when there is left-over party food or if someone has a big batch of a work treat to share.  However, every once in a while, we have a special event.  For the end-of-summer, we had our first bake-off challenge.

Since we work for a Historical Society, selecting historical recipes made sense.  We have a huge collection of cookbooks from all over Minnesota and who doesn't like to muddle through less-than-exact directions?

The organizer picked the book Adventures in the Kitchen, a 1954 cookbook compiled by the women of the Waverly Lutheran Church.  Participants could make any of the cookies, bars, pies, or quick breads/muffins.  I chose to make two recipes: Cherry Nut Loaf and Fruit Cocktail Cookies.  The first is described below and the second is in another post on this blog.

I'll put the original recipe and then my modern, updated version with more information that might help people who aren't experienced bakers or who aren't used to using old recipes. Oh, yeah, and my recipe has more cherries than the original.  Why?  'Cause I like cherries.

Original Recipe:
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
5 oz. jar of chopped maraschino cherries or 1/3 cup cherries and 1/4 c. juice
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. B.P.
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. nut meats chopped
Beat sugar and eggs until light, add cherry juice and dry ingredients alternately.  Add cherries and nuts. Bake 1 hour in 350 degree oven

--Mrs. Ollie Kleinschrodt

--Mrs. Orville Peterson

--Mrs. J. H. Holland 

(Guest Cooks)

Modern Version:

Ingredients:

• 1 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 of a 10 oz. jar of chopped maraschino cherries, drained and chopped plus 1/4 cup reserved drained juice 
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. nuts, chopped (I used walnuts this time)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Whisk eggs and sugar together until well mixed and light/fluffy.  
3. In another bowl, stir together dry ingredients
4. Alternately add cherry juice and dry mixture.
5. When well blended, stir in cherries and nuts.  
6. Lightly grease sides and bottom of standard loaf pan
7. Bake loaf 45 to 60 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the center of the loaf.  My loaf was not done at all when I checked it after 40 minutes, but probably slightly overdone when I checked it at 50 minutes.  
8. Let cool, loosen edges, and remove loaf from pan. 

Sweet and fruity chicken salad

I have been making and tinkering with the following fruity chicken salad recipe for several years.  It is based on a Hungry Girl recipe called Sweet 'n Chunky Chicken Salad.  The idea is that it is sort of like a Waldorf salad, but I like to think of it as a totally different thing.  My version has more fruits and veggies than the original, making it less saucy.  None of the amounts in the ingredients are exact, it is definitely a "to taste" thing.  

I have added walnuts to it, topped a sandwich with avocado, added extra salt and pepper to the top of it, eaten it straight out of the bowl with a fork, and other serving variations.  I've also made it without any mayo (when I just didn't have any in the house) and without any sweetener (because I forgot, but it was still pretty good!).  It is filling and a great way to use yummy fruits and veggies to make a healthy lunch.  

Here it is:

Ingredients:

• About 1 cup cooked and chopped skinless chicken breast (rotisserie chicken makes it extra-tasty!)
• 1/2 to 1 cup peeled, chopped cucumber
• 1/2+ cup seedless red grapes, halved
• 1/2+ cup chopped apple (usually I just cut up half to 3/4 of a medium to large sized apple)
• 1/4 cup (heaping) plain, fat free, Greek yogurt 
• 2 Tbsp light or fat free mayo
• 1 packet Splenda
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
• dash salt
• pepper and more lemon pepper, to taste

 Directions:

1) Mix yogurt, mayo, Splenda, salt, pepper, and lemon pepper.

2) Stir in chicken, coating evenly

3) Stir in remaining ingredients

4) You can eat this right away, or you can let the flavors mellow a bit in the fridge.  

This makes 2 really large servings.

Photos of chicken salad are never really gonna look that appealing, but here is an example: