I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country.  As I delve into this blog, I debate how much I want to reveal about myself. I am a private and anxious person, therefore narrowing down the location of where I grew up to a specific region in PA gives me pause (and possibly an ulcer).

Unfortunately, where I spent my formative years has foisted upon the world such delicacies as scrapple and shoe fly pie, so clearly I need to atone…for something.

PA Dutch country (including Philadelphia) also gave the world Tastykakes, Utz and Martins Potato Chips (I am ride or die for Utz Crab Chips), Hershey, York Peppermint Patties, Turkey Hill, Rutter’s, and Wawa and is has been known as the junk food capital of the U.S…..Sooooo I guess what I’m trying to say is both “Sorry?” and “You Are Welcome?”.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..Tastykake Koffee Kakes  (actual gif of me)

My plan is to look at/cook/”taste” (force my loved ones to taste) the variety of foods that busted out of the questionably sane minds of the PA Dutch for many generations…in some cases an unwarranted number of generations.  To begin, I will be looking at two cook books that I found in my parents’ home, one from the 1930’s and one from the 1960’s. As a vegetarian, there will definitely be recipes that I will not be able to make or “vegetarian-ize”. As a person with functioning taste buds there will be recipes that I, for the good of humanity, will not attempt regardless of my dietary preferences.

First up What’s Cookin? Published in 1969.   Recipes from the church ladies of the church that I was forced….errrrr…willingly went to as a child and left very quickly thereafter.  My grandmother and my (most likely very confused Lithuanian) Jewish great-grandmother Righmake a splash in these very pages.

I am particularly perturbed by the lack of “g” at the end of “cookin.” At the very least the “Woman’s Society” could have not triggered my eye twitch by adding the apostrophe, but alas, here we are.   And not to be pedantic, but should it not be the Women’s Society, or is there just one woman?  Is this a Highlander situation?  I’d pay to watch that.

Right, where was I????? I wanted to start with something fun and enjoyable to eat.  Some of my fondest memories are being in my grandmother’s kitchen and snacking on her homemade cookies and sweets, specifically her sugar cakes. My grandmother was a talented baker,  a talent I truly didn’t inherit.  I mean, *sigh* I’m okaaaaaaayyy….just not a neat, precise, patient baker.

The sugar CAKE should not be confused with the sugar COOKIE. Sugar cakes are large, fluffy, and are classified as drop “cookies”.   I’ve eaten these PA Dutch delicacies both with and without chocolate chips baked in them, but really,  a plain sugar cake is pretty much heaven. I have just noticed that my more hard core 1936 Pa Dutch Cook Book does not include a sugar cake recipe.  It may have been just slightly too much sin for those humble god fearing folks.

I do not have my grandmother’s recipe, but What’s Cookin? does NOT disappoint!   There are TEN (!!!!) recipes in this 150 page cook book. TEN…..don’t believe me?  Welp, here you go motherfuckers:

Look at Ms. Clara Grim going all rebel without a cause and adding pineapples to her sugar cakes (Clara….no). Each sugar cake recipe is different with such yummy ingredients as lard, “Fluffo”, “sweet milk”, and “thick milk”…………………………………………………….sorry I needed a moment to settle my stomach.  Do I dare Google “fluffo”?  I dare:

Oh boy…1960’s were such a fun and wonderful time for women!  I gotta go lay down.

Coming up in Part 2, I’ll have photographic evidence of homemade sugar cakes plus the recipe used (hint, I have found more “modern” recipes and will most likely use and link to one of those….because the idea of lard and “thick milk” …………..nope…..can’t even finish that thought).