Singing to the Dishes

Singing to the Dishes The recipes and music my family left behind

by Katie Reahl

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Self published with

Blurb.com, katiereahl.com Copyright © 2021 Katie Reahl All rights reserved.

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In memory of all of my nanas, the nanas before them, and the next generation, whomever you may be.

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Singing to the Dishes Katie Reahl

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Nana and her sister Pat hated doing the dishes.

To pass the time, they sang together over the sink until every dish was clean.

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My great grammie gifted my grandpa and mom a cookbook each: handwritten notecards of recipes passed down to her of our family’s favorites.

As the years went on, my nana added to the book, then my mom, and eventually me.

Although I grew up with these books in our cupboards, all of these recipes were new to me.

This book is my opportunity to dive in to what my family has left behind, and pass on my own personalized gift to the next generation.

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Contents Nana Bartlett 13 French Cake 18 Angel Food Cake 20 Coffee Mousse 22 Gramie’s Boston Cream Pie 24

Great Grammie 27 Chocolate Chip Cake 38 Lemon Pie 40 Hermits 42 Butterscotch Pecan Pie 44 Mother’s Pie Crust 46

Nana & Aunt Pat 61 Joyce’s Cake 74 Joyce’s Coffee Cake 76 Pat’s Cheesecake 78 Butternut Crescents 80

Me 93 Plum Kuchen 94 Crepes 97 Blueberry Muffins 99 Banana Bread 100

Music Nana & Pat Duet 37 Great Grandpa Playlist 51 Pat’s Recital Playlist 88 Nana Recital Playlist 89

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Nana Bartlett I never got a chance to meet Nana Bartlett.

Grandpa, who grew up with her in the house, could only recall her Saturday frank and beans dinners, which he grew to hate. She was a quiet woman with a New England accent, made of pure class.

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1952, Nana Bartlett cooks in the Bayside house’s kitchen

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1887, Nana Bartlett poses for a portrait

1950, the family home in Bayside, NY

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My Notes: 1. I used a 9 inch cake pan, greased and floured, although I’m not sure what the original was 2. I decorated it with a glaze recipe that I like and a few sliced strawberries

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French Cake Ingredients: ½ c butter 1 ½ c sugar 3 eggs ½ c milk 2 c flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp vanilla extract 9” pan Directions: 1. Cream butter + sugar 2. Add well beaten eggs 3. Add milk 4. Add sifted flour and baking powder 5. Add 1 tsp almond or vanilla extract 6. Grease and flour 9 inch pan 7. Bake 350 degrees, 40 or 50 minutes

My Glaze: 1. Mix 2 tbsp milk and 2 tsp vanilla extract 2. Add powdered sugar until desired consistnecy, about 1 cup

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Angel Food Cake Ingredients: Cake ¾ c cold water 3 egg (separated) 1 ¼ c sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract Pinch of salt 1 ½ c flour 1 tsp baking powder Frosting 1/4 c boiling water 2+ cups of confectioners sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 4 Tbsp cocoa with sugar Mix all ingredients, add confectioners sugar until desired thickness Directions: 1. Beat water and egg yolks one minute 2. Add sugar + beat one minute 3. Add vanilla, salt (optional) + flour sifted with baking powder 4. Add stiffly beaten egg whites 5. Bake in an ungreased angel cake pan - 350 degrees 25 minutes or until done 6. Frost with soft chocolate frosting

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My Notes: 1. I opted for vanilla frosting, but would recommend using chocolate. I also think a fruity filling would really improve this cake 2. I added a bit of creamed butter to the frosting, and that really enhanced the flavor

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My Notes: 1. A long lived Thanksgiving and Christmas dessert in our family 2. I thickened the syrup over medium heat for about a half hour, stirring constantly. The spoon should have a thin film on it when removed

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Coffee Mousse Ingredients: 1 c strong coffee 1 c sugar 2 eggs (separated) 1 pt cream Directions: 1. Mix + cook coffee, sugar, and egg yolks at night in a double boiler until it begins to thicken.

Save egg whites 2. In the morning, whip cream and add to mixture 3. Stiffly beat egg whites, add to mixture 4. Put in freezer safe tray (plastic) + freeze

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Gramie’s Boston Cream Pie Ingredients: 2 eggs separated ½ c water 1 c sifted sugar 1 c sifted flour ¾ tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla ½” lemon flavoring Directions: 1. Separate eggs. Add water to egg yolks. Beat until triple in volume 2. Add sugar gradually 3. Sift dry ingredients + stir into yolk mixture 4. Add flavorings 5. Beat egg whites STIFF + fold into mixture 6. Pour into 2 8” round pans, greased and floured 7. Bake 25 to 30 minutes - 350 degree oven 8. Cool, and assemble with filling and icing

Filling:

Icing:

2 c milk 6 tbsp flour ¼ c sugar ¾ tsp salt 2 eggs 1 tbsp butter 1 tbsp vanilla or tbsp almond 6 H tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp cornstarch 4 tsp cold water 1 ½ squares chocolate melted ¼ c granulated sugar ½ c hot water ¼ c corn syrup ½ tsp vanilla

Mix in order, cook in sauce pan 24

Combine ingredients, cool to thicken, and pour on cake

My Notes: 1. I definitley overdid it on the filling’s “6 H[eaping] tbsp of corn starch.” I would advise to do regular scoops 2. My icing came out a bit chunky and thin. It thickened a lot once the melted chocolate cooled

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Great Grammie I knew Great Grammie for a short time. I only vagley remember feeding birds on her front lawn. She is rememberd for her love for Boston Terriers and horror movies. The more gruesome, the better.

1975, Hither HIlls Montauk

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1912, Great Grammie 1962, Great Grammie at a lake in New Hampshire

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1930, Great Grammie and Great Grandpa on their first date, in a Coney Island photo booth

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1954 Great Grammie standing on the construction site of their home in Hither Hills, Montauk

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1926 While in college, Jean played the trumpet and violin in a band

Later in life she became a high school singing teacher 33

Among her students was her son, my grandpa, Kent Grandpa met my nana and her sister, Pat, in these classes When Nana saw Grandpa get on stage for the first time, she whispered to her friend, “I’m going to marry him.”

1952, Nana and grandpa perform a number from Oklahoma in their high school production 1962, 10 years later, Nana and Grandpa got married

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Later in life she became a high school singing teacher, her son among her students.

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Nana & Aunt Pat

Aunt Pat and Nana sang together often, be it over the sink or on the stage.

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Chocolate Chip Cake Ingredients: ½ pt sour cream (1 cup) 4 eggs ½ c oil 1 Duncan Hines yellow cake mix 1 pkg instant chocolate pudding 1 bag choc morsels, semi sweet (small bag) ¼ c sugar (put over chocolate morsels before baking) Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour bunt pan 2. Combine and mix the ingredients not in box for 10 minutes on medium speed in the mixer 4. Add boxed ingredients, mix 5. Pour ½ batter in bunt pan 6. Top with half of the sugar and half of the package of chocolate morsels 7. Repeat with the other half 8. Bake 1 hour 9. Go around sides of pan with spatula and let cool in pan

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My Notes: 1. Make sure you have plenty of room at the top of your pan before baking. I chose a bundt pan that was far too small, spilling over the sides and into the bottom of the oven while baking

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Lemon Pie Ingredients: 9” pastry shell ⅓ c strained lemon juice 4 Tbsp corn starch + 5 ⅓ Tbsp meringue 2 Tbsp flour 1 ⅓ c sugar ¼ tsp salt 1 ½ c boiling water 4 egg yolks 3 Tbsp firm butter 4 egg whites ⅓ c sugar 1 tsp sugar Directions: Filling: 1. Bake + cool pastry shell 2. Wash off lemons + grate off yellow part of rind. Squeeze lemon. Run thru coarse strainer 3. Blend cornstarch, flour, sugar + salt in 3qt saucepan 4. Stir in boiling water 5. Place over direct heat, cook, + stir constantly until thick + clear, about 3 min 6. Beat egg yolks quickly, stir in about 1/5 c of hot mixture.

Add remaining mixture. Return to double boiler. Cook + stir about 2 min longer 8. Remove from heat. Stir in butter, then rind - then lemon juice gradually in small portions, mixing well after each 9. Pour into cooled pie shell Meringue: 10. Beat salt and egg whites until stiff and shiny 11. Spread lightly over pie so it touches crust all around; swirl 40

or spread smooth + mark into serving sized pieces with long knife blade 12. Sprinkle the sugar + bake in oven - 350 for 12 to 15 or until golden brown. Cool 2-3 hours on rack out of draft

My Notes: 1. Make sure the egg yolks are fully mixed into the hot mixture before transferring into the double boiler 2. I did not opt for the meringue

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Hermits Ingredients: 1 ½ c sugar ¾ c shortening (crisco) 3 beaten eggs 2 tbsp molasses 1 c chopped raisins ½ c chopped walnuts 1 tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp nutmeg ½ tsp ground cloves 2 tbsp milk 1 tsp baking soda 4 c flour Directions: 1. Cream sugar and butter 2. Beat eggs and add to creamed mixture 3. Mix in molasses, raisins, walnuts, and spices 4. Dissolve baking soda in milk. Add 5. Mix in flour 6. Roll and cut into ¼ inch thick cookies 7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes

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My Notes: 1. Make sure you place in the center of the oven, the batches in the lower oven singed the bottom 2. My larger circular cookies baked for 15 minutes, while my smaller square cookies baked for 10

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Butterscotch Pecan Pie Ingredients: 3 eggs 1 c light corn syrup 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 c light brown sugar packed 2 tbsp butter or margarine melted 1 c peanuts 1 c walnut halves 9” unbaked pie shell Whipped cream Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees 2. In medium bowl, beat eggs slightly 3. Add corn syrup, vanilla, brown sugar + butter. Mix well 4. Stir in nuts. Pour into unbaked pie shell 5. Bake 15 min. Reduce heat to 350 degrees + bake additional 30 to 35 minutes or until outer edge of filling seems set 6. Let cool completely on wire rack. Just before servin decorate edges with rosette of whipper cream Pie Crust 46

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Mother’s Pie Crust Ingredients: 1 c flour 3 tbsp (bounded) crisco ⅓ c ice water (or enough to make dough) Directions: 1. Use fork to mix 2. Flour surface and roll out 3. Place in pie tin and trim edges

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1969, Great Grandpa with my Uncle John, Mom, and Aunt Cathy on Christmas day My Notes: 1. My great grandpa and uncle’s favorite dessert around the holidays 2. I think toasting your nuts and chopping them into chunks before hand would really enhance the flavor 3. Not my favorite crust recipie, came out to be very thin and tough

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Great Grandpa’s Music

01 Parsifal 02 Tea and Trumpets 03 Comp. 2 04 Comp. 1

Great Grandpa and Great Grammie in their Bayside house 51

Great Grandpa posing for a professional portrait

Great Grandpa transcribing music at a friend’s house in Baysid 52

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Great Grandpa, Great Grammie, Aunt Cathy, Mom, and Uncle John around 1966

1975, Great Grandpa and Mom at the piano

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2002, Great Grammie celebrating her last birthday at age 96

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Nana & Aunt Pat Joyce Kresa and Patricia Lievendag are fondly remembered for always singing the loudest in church, dressing to the nines, and making sure our family knew they loved us

1962, Montauk

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1946, Nana and Aunt Pat

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1941, Nana and Aunt Pat with their parents

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1965, Nana with my newborn mother in the hospital 65

1970, Nana sits with my mom in front of the Christmas tree

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1966, Aunt Pat holds Uncle Scott surrounded by my Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Holly, and Uncle Ron 67

1975, My mom poses holding a fresh catch with Uncle Scott, Aunt Holly, and Uncle Ronnie 68

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1971, Nana lights the candles at Mom’s birthday

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1972, Great Grammie smoking in the kitchen next to Nana 71

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1962, Pat at Montauk beach with the whole family 1962, Nana at a lake in New Hampsire 73

Joyce’s Cake Ingredients: 1 package of dry lemon Jell-o 1 package of yellow cake mix 4 eggs 3/4 cups of mazola oil 3/4 cups apricot nectar 1 tbsp lemon extract 1 cup of powdered sugar 2 lemons Directions: 1. Mix dry pkg of lemon jello with yellow cake mix 2. Add eggs, mazola oil, apricot nectar, and lemon extract 3. Beat well 4. Bake in bundt pan at 350 degrees ferenheit for 1 hour 5. Mix powdered sugar + juice of 2 lemons 6. Pour over cake while hot

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My Notes: 1. I would recommend 40 minutes in the oven. Mine was burnt at 50 2. The glaze only looked opaque while being poured, and was very tart. I added 2 tbsp of butter and milk. The milk will thin the glaze, so add more powdered sugar if necessary 75

Coffee Cake (From Joyce) Ingredients: Cake ½ lb butter 1 ¼ c sugar 2 eggs 1 c sour cream 2 c flour ½ tsp baking powder 9” tube pan Topping ¾ c chopped walnuts 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tbsp sugar ¼ tsp mace Directions: 1. Cream butter and sugar 2. Add eggs, beat until light 3. Blend in sour cream 4. SIFT flour and baking powder 5. Blend into cream mixture 6. Combine all topping ingredients in a separate bowl 7. Put ½ batter - then topping ½ then topping 8. Start in cold oven, bake 350 degrees for 55 minutes

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My Notes: 1. I would recommend checking in on the cake at 45 minutes. At 55 minutes my cake was a bit singed 2. I also really underdid the inner filling. Most of the topping should go inside the cake

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My Notes: 1. Make sure the bottom edges of the crust are packed in tight, or the filling may leak 2. Wrap the outside bottom of the spring form in tin foil before placing it in water filled cookie sheet 78

Pat’s Cheesecake Ingredients: Filling 6 8oz cream cheese 1 pt sour cream 6 eggs 2 cups sugar 1 tsp vanilla Crust 1 3/4 c graham cracker crumbs 1/3 c butter, melted 1/4 c granulated sugar 1/2 tsp salt Mix, bake 8-10 min at 350 Directions: 1. Bake graham cracker crust in springform pan 2. Water in bottom of cookie sheet 3. Blend each ingredient well adding each one at a time 4. Bake 1 to 1 ½ hrs (1 hr 20 min)

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Butternut Crescents Ingredients: 1 c butter or margarine ¼ c confectioners sugar + extra for coating 1 Tbsp water 2 tsp vanilla 2 c sifted flour 1 c finely chopped pecans Directions: 1. Melt butter or margarine in small saucepan, remove from heat 2. Stir in ¼ c powdered sugar, water, and vanilla 3. Gradually blend in flour, then pecans 4. Pinch off teaspoons worth of dough and roll into fingerlike strips about 2 inches long 5. Place on ungreased cookie sheets, curve into crescents 6. Bake in 300 oven for 20 minutes, or until golden 7. Remove carefully from cookie sheets and dust with confectioners sugar while still hot.

Cool, and dust again

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My Notes: 1. A family favorite for the holidays, made every Christmas 2. I rolled my crescents a bit too thick and ended up baking them for closer to 40 minutes

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Nana

1957, Nana kept singing past highschool, the lead singer in her group The Krestones 1963, Nana performs at the Youque Club, on Kwajelin in the Marshall Islands

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Aunt Pat

Aunt Pat performing outside of Garden World in early highschool Aunt Pat’s voice could be heard over any crowd, be it in church or on the stage 87

Pat’s Recital

A full recital beautifully demonstrating Aunt Pat’s singing ability

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Nana’s Music

01 Make Believe 02 Mighty Lak’ A Rose 03 Spring’s Awakening

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Aunt Pat and Nana around 1998

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Me I inherited my love of sweets, fashion, art, and music from all of these incredible women. I miss them dearly, and hope this work helps their memory to grace even more lives.

2004, California

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Your Notes:

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2000, My mom sits next to Great Grammie with me in her arms

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Your Notes:

2007, Mom, Nana, & me with my sister Jocelyn and my cousins Lizzie and Andrew 2004, Mom, my sister Jocelyn, Me, & Nana in our West Virginia home

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2004, Nana cuts my 3rd birthday cake

Your Notes:

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Your Notes:

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2004, My sister Jocelyn and I asleep on Nana after a long day on the water

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Archival photography, scanning, and audio digitizing by Kent Kresa (Grandpa) and Helmy Kresa (Great Grandpa)

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Big thanks to: Mom & Grandpa for keeping all our family photos, recipes, and history alive.

My classmates, Professor Strong, and Professor Heisler at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications for the endless encouragement, ideas, & feedback.

Layne, Griffin, Dan, Nick, friends, and family who helped me eat these wonderful desserts.

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