One of my inspirations when starting this blog was a way to save our family recipes and techniques. Saving family recipes sometimes meant that we needed to convert unique ways of measuring (a handful of flour in Grandma’s Pie Crust or what turned out to be a “tea”cup of sugar in Grandpa’s Christmas Fudge) or a list of ingredients without a method or just really short notes into a recipe. I still have a long way to go and a long list of things I still want to post – has anyone noticed that potica is missing?! That one is going to be a fun challenge when I get to it and I’ll definitely be glad for our “step by step” style when I finally get around to posting the recipe and I can reference it.
One of the neatest things for me when I was looking over our top all-time recipes was when I saw a family recipe make the list. Food to me is something that connects us across all cultures and seeing some of the recipes that represent us hit our overall Top 10 showed me that at least a small part of our history through food resonates with people and that inspired me to write this post. Rather than pick my favorites I decided to go with the most popular.
To identify the recipes for this post, I looked at our all time recipe views and selected only those on the list that were for a recipe that came from our family. The original source for the recipe may have been handed down for generations or maybe it was one a parent or grandparent picked up from a town or church cookbook or received from a friend. Either way these are the ones that are in my kitchen in a handmade recipe card! I’ll share the history or a story behind each recipe.
10. Spicy Sausage & Velveeta Dip
This dip just screams Midwest with Velveeta cheese and cream of mushroom soup in it. This isn’t the time or place to knock recipes made with creamed soup or processed cheese, these represent a place and a time when these ingredients were popular for a variety of reasons. The recipe comes from my mom, who when I asked for this original recipe sent me a picture of a recipe cut from a Velveeta box, lol! Except it wasn’t quite this exact dip, so we don’t know the exact origin. I remember this dip coming out at many a party or potluck. One that sticks in my mind is a party down at the lake on a really rainy day and warming up the dip in the crock pot crock (did I mention it’s great made ahead?) because we forgot to put it in the crock pot early enough that morning! Make sure to use a sturdy chip as this is a hearty dip.
The name also equates to “Minnesota Spicy” you can use hot sausage and salsa to crank it up a bit.
9. Ely Pasties
One of my favorite lines Tory ever wrote for the blog has got to be in this post when she talks about the pronunciation of a pasty and tells you not to google “pay-stEEs” on a work computer in case you confused them with these pasties (past-EEs). Pasties are normally a individual pocket of pastry stuffed with filling, but for my Grandma Forsman who had 10 kids she made them as pies and so that’s how we always ate them as a kid. Moms have been looking for shortcuts since the beginning of time and it shows in simple modifications like this to food.
Pasties remain a huge part of the culture in our small hometown as well as many other midwest towns. You can find church fundraising sales for pasties, always find them at Zup’s the local grocery store. A few years ago my Grandma’s side of the family had a family reunion and one of the activities was pasty making!
The method for these potatoes comes from my mother-in-law. She made them a lot when grilling when Derek and I were first dating in high school. We now customize them and flavor them with herbs that are fresh in our garden like in this version that uses fresh dill. My family would cook “hobo” dinners whole foil packet meals on the campfire when we were camping, but I never did only potatoes as a side until I learned this method.
This recipe comes from my Aunt ‘Thann and I remember taking home a loaf each December at her annual cookie party. She’s affectionately known as the “Cookie Queen” and when I was growing up would host a part where she would give away ice-cream buckets of cookies to each family. Her table would be loaded down with ice-cream buckets each full of one flavor and we all got to mix and match. She started baking in the summer sometime if memory serves and usually we got to come over on sugar cookie frosting day and help her frost a bunch of sugar cookies. Our reward was frosting and taking home a giant santa cookie for ourselves!
Back to the gumdrop bread though, I don’t know where the recipe originated from, but its sort of like a fruitcake except with gumdrops (oh and it’s edible too – unlike how most people view a fruitcake).
This is one of the first baking recipes that I mastered. The hardest part is cutting the rhubarb, then you let yellow cake mix and strawberry jell-o powder do the hard work. When I asked my Mom where it came from, she sent me a photo of the yellow sheet of paper she had written the recipe down on, unfortunately without a note about the source of the recipe.
Another Aunt ‘Thann special, these were always my favorite on the dessert table when she showed up with a pan to any gathering. I love the peanut butter smothered special k (or cornflakes) and the simple frosting of chocolate and butterscotch chips. Sweet and indulgent. Lots of midwest families make a version of these bars, some make them with rice krispies which just doesn’t do it for me. It doesn’t have the right crunch and it’s not how Aunt ‘Thann made it.
4. Item Name: Garden Lettuce with Vinegar Dressing
This is a family recipe that came from Derek’s Mom’s side of the family. It’s the simplest dressing you’ll ever find just vinegar and a splash of milk that is best tossed with loose leaf lettuce from the garden. I have an embarrassing amount of vinegars in my drawer by the stove and whenever I visit the fancy vinegar and oil store come home with more than I promised myself I would get – but that works out because I have a nice variety of vinegars to rotate through and pair with what we’re making.
This recipe is from my Dad’s mom, Nana. What I love most about many of her Swedish recipes is the almond flavor. Most kringlers are round, but she always made them in rectangles. If she were still around, I would ask her if she knew why or more about where the recipe came from. I am grateful that I have this recipe on one of her handwritten recipe cards and know that it’s the way she made it, even if I don’t know the entire history.
2. Imitation Lobster / Poor Man’s Lobster / Poached Cod
I remember eating this dish during Lent often as a kid. It felt so fancy to get our little cups of butter and dip the flaked cod into it. As a kid, I certainly didn’t know the difference between cod and lobster. It remains a nostalgic fav for both me and Tory. When Tory posted it for the blog she did a little experiment of multiple cooking methods – a nod to how little instructions family recipes sometimes come with.
A duck camp favorite and my dad’s specialty. Strips of fresh duck breast shaken up in a paper bag of flour and Nature’s Seasoning (our secret seasoning blend – lol!) and then fried in butter. It’s duck made in a way that is approachable to anyone. We would often have this during cocktail hour as an appetizer along with other snacks. I can’t count the number of times I’ve either watched my dad cook this or helped him make it over the course of my life – the memories are almost as good as the duck.
Leave a Reply