Recycle Recipes: Scalloped Potatoes, Chicken Casserole, Ice Box cookies

After my disastrous attempt at Montgomery Pie, I decided to try some of the other recipes in my Pennsylvania Box instead.

My sampling team said this is a good recipe; it has the consistency of a warm potato salad. Definitely a comfort food.

scalloped potatoesScalloped Potatoes, Katie, 1978

  • 12-15 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled & diced
  • 2 cans cream of chicken soup
  •  1 pound (16 ounces) sour cream or cottage cheese or one half each
  •  One-fourth cup chopped onion
  •  Three-fourths cup grated cheddar cheese (4 oz.)
  •  One-fourth cup butter

Directions: Melt butter in kettle (use sauce pan or microwave). Add chicken soup, dilute a little (with one fourth cup water or milk)-then add cottage cheese or sour cream. Add cheddar cheese slowly. Pour over potatoes.

Bake in an oiled 9×13 pan for one hour at 325-350 degrees.

Cheese will not dry out if it is wrapped in a cloth dampened with vinegar. Meatloaf won’t crack when baking if it is rubbed with cold water before going in the oven. Love thy enemies, it will drive them nuts. (Marley UMC, 1968)

chickencasserolesChicken Casserole, Louise Graybill, Feb. 1973

Arrange chicken parts in baking pan. Sprinkle with flour, salt & pepper (about ¼ cup flour, salt and pepper to taste). Cover with thinly sliced onions. Mix 1 can mushroom soup with ½ can Sauterne wine (or chicken broth) and pour over all. Bake in 350 degree oven one hour. Note: For big white dish cook two hours. Serve with rice cooked in chicken broth. Sour cream too.

To clean vases, fill with hot water and add 2 teaspoons of vinegar plus some rice and shake well. Kitchen Hints, 1980.

I found this Ice Box Cookie recipe in a hand-typed booklet titled “Cookies.”  It was from Ruth-Naomi’s Bible class, St. Matthews Lutheran Church, 1954, purchased in Pennsylvania. Guys who don’t normally enjoy sweets, like this crispy cookie.

ice box cookiesIce Box Cookies, Catharine Mergner’s recipe, 1954

  • 1 lb. butter 1 tablespoon white Karo
  • 2-1/2 cups sugar 3 eggs
  • 1 cup nut meats (walnuts or pecans) ½ teaspoon soda
  • 5-1/2 cups flour

Optional: Add one half teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Directions: Mix thoroughly butter and sugar. Add eggs and Karo, then flour, soda and nut meats. Shape into rolls (2- ½ inches in width). Wrap in wax paper or parchment paper and put in refrigerator overnight. Slice thin, about ¼ inch thick, and bake in hot oven at 400 degrees for 5-7 minutes. Makes about 7 dozen. The cookie rolls can be stored in the refrigerator for six weeks.

Helpful Hints: Use the can opener that leaves a smooth edge and remove both ends from a flat can (the size can that tuna is usually packed in) and you have a perfect mold for poaching eggs. Try waxing your ashtrays. Ashes won’t cling, odors won’t linger and then can be wiped clean with a paper towel. This saves daily washing. Sons of Italy, 1967