[BakerAunt]

My mom was influenced by the packaged food craze that really took off in the 1960s--and our family is large, so I can't blame her--,but she had certain specialties that were more from scratch, such as her spaghetti sauce. She would make a giant pot of it, and also make a giant pot of chili at the same time. Some of it she would freeze. I still make a variation of her spaghetti sauce (although my husband cannot eat it due to the heavy tomato sauce and spices). Before I was married, I'd make a big pot of it at the start of the semester, and freeze it in two-cup serving containers for fast meals. (I do miss being able to do that.) She also made an excellent turkey tetrazzini casserole, and I found that froze well too in small portions. Her other major claim to fame was her hamburger stroganoff, with its Campbell's cream of chicken soup. She made a mashed potato salad--without a recipe--that one of her grandmother's had made. That one I don't have, but it was yellow from the yolks and the mustard and had dill pickle and lettuce in it. She never let a turkey carcass go to waste but made broth.

She didn't do a lot of baking, but every now and then she would get excited and try a new recipe. The Coconut Bavarian Cream Pie with chocolate coconut crust was a favorite. I've made it in the past, until the fear of raw egg white put me off. I also bake her pumpkin pie recipe, and she usually made it from scratch--although she would use the leftover jack-o-lantern!

[BakerAunt]

I wish that I could enlarge the picture so that I could see every detail of the chocolate work. Those look like chocolate skulls, as well as some cute chocolate owls and ghosts. I also wish that I could reach into the computer screen and sample some of those creations!

[BakerAunt]

One reason that I enjoyed the story is that I don't have any great cooking (or baking) memories of my grandmothers. Both worked throughout their marriages, so maybe that is why there was not a lot of experimentation. In the case of my maternal grandmother, her mother-in-law lived with them, even after my grandmother was widowed and remarried, and my mom told me that she did the cooking. So, I only remember, as a child, having fried spam (hey, we thought it was great!), Kraft macaroni and cheese, and Velveta cheese, as well as eating either raw turnip or rutabaga as my grandmother peeled it.

[BakerAunt]

I'm trying to be patient as I look forward to this blog on chocolate--and it sounds like some neat bakery stuff as well.

[BakerAunt]

May you be baking soon.

[BakerAunt]

Update: The Maple Pound Cake with Maple Rum Glaze was very good. The Nordic War pan in which I baked it caused it to spread out more (nature of the wreath pans that are 10-inches wide) than it might have done in a 9 or 10 cup pan that is not as wide and is deeper. The glaze made it very moist. I'm not sure that the texture was that much different from any other cake I've baked with regular flour. We liked it, and I will bake it again--especially since I need to use that unbleached cake flour.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the update. My husband and I have been watching the weather channel but could not tell how badly your area was hit. I hope you and the family are home soon and do not have too much cleaning up to do.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--another thought. Is it possible to drain the cranberry-apple-orange relish to remove some of the liquid? Perhaps use a strainer or cheesecloth?

Increasing the flour by perhaps 2 Tbs. to 1/4 cup might also help. Do you know how the flour was originally measured? A lot of older recipes had people scoop the flour with the cup, which would result in more flour being used. I did it that way for years. I think that I only started fluffing it with a scoop and using the scoop to put it into the measuring cup after I began ordering from KAF, and they made a point of saying it should be measured that way or weighed.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--Perhaps the bread needed to bake longer? Maybe the cranberry orange relish was wetter than the cranberry-orange relish that came in a jar in the 1970s?

[BakerAunt]

The nice people at Ocean Spray wrote back to me:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We love to hear from people who are as into cranberries as much as we are. When you purchase Ocean Spray® products you are supporting the more than 700 family farms which own the brand. Ocean Spray takes great pride in manufacturing premium products.

You are correct, we did make the CRANORANGE® cranberry orange relish in a glass jar in the 70's. We are sad to report we are no longer producing CRANORANGE® cranberry orange relish. Although we considered it to be a very fine product, consumer demand was not what we had anticipated. Consequently, a marketing decision was made to stop production. We know it’s frustrating when one of your favorite products are discontinued and we have shared your feedback with our marketing department.

[BakerAunt]

OK, I know it was in a glass jar. This would have been in the 1970s in southern California. I keep trying to find some verification on the internet, but so far, I've not been able to do so. It had a jam-like consistency and had to be refrigerated once opened.

I did find this cooked one:

http://www.oceanspray.com/Recipes/Corporate/Sauces,-Sides-Salads/Cranberry-Orange-Sauce-Gift-Jars.aspx

I decided to go to the source and ask Ocean Spray on its website. I'll report back what I hear.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Cwcdesign--yes, it did come in a jar. I would eat it on toast after Thanksgiving. My mom never made a homemade cranberry sauce. It was always out of a can, and then the jar of cranberry-orange relish joined the yearly tradition.

[BakerAunt]

I wish that KAF would give an optimal temperature. I have an infrared thermometer that I can use to check pan temperature. I note that the pan gets hotter the longer I'm using it. Even low on my gas stove can get a bit too hot, so I find myself lifting up the various griddles to cool them a bit. When I do English muffins, it is a bit of a juggling act with cast iron pans or Le Creuset griddle.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you, Italian Cook for reporting back. I'll make a note on the recipe for when I try it. I'm glad your husband enjoyed the Welsh Cakes. Sometimes it just takes the right version of a recipe.

[BakerAunt]

My cranberry-orange recipe came from Jane Brody's Good Food Cookbook. It seems to me that the jarred sauce has definitely been cooked--would be necessary for canning it. As I recall, it was somewhat like a jam.

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