A simple label on the inside cover of the cookbook reads: "To Gene with love, Ella."
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than a wife and mother. The bulk of the cookbook’s contents features desserts and party food rather than modern concerns of vegetables and healthier options. This detail merits an interesting observation from Bowers: “Most people or their cooks knew how to cook vegetables as they enjoyed them, seasoned with pork, so there was little need for recipes.” She remembers, however, that cooks’ cakes or other dessert recipes were held precious. “Some people would deliberately give an incorrect ingredient just so the shared version would not be as good as theirs,” she said. Food enthusiasts discover that older recipes or cookbooks include many recipes with no directions. One might surmise that those who bothered to have interest in cooking simply did not need steps in reproduction. The green notebook also records dishes that are rarely served today: Birds on Toast, Pressed Chicken, Boiled Dressing, and Veal Loaf, to name a few. Lenox
sauce, XYZ dressing, 5 cent cherries have vanished. “Keeps well in the GE,” recalls the then-amazing concept of refrigeration. Canning seems important not only in offering a condiment, but to preserve extra produce to be enjoyed out of season. Sweet sandwiches such as date and cream cheese appear numerous times; a multitude of congealed salads with fruits and vegetables abound. “Finely ground” appears often. One of the recipes from Gene Reynolds appears as a casserole. Although celery on its own is rarely a feature these days, this crunchy vegetable was most popular in 1949. “Celery was an inexpensive vegetable then; everyone was still conscious of cost in those years after the war,” Bowers said. The recipe has been amended slightly, decreasing the almonds and adding celery broth to the sauce. Mention Charlotte to many Southerners, and they might swoon. These holiday seasons of the past were not complete without a bowl of charlotte,