Banana Doughnuts- A Vintage Recipe

Mmm Doughnuts. 

The following recipe was found in a Kenmore Electric Skillet Direction and Recipe booklet from 1955.  Sears, Roebuck, and Co printed this promotional booklet. I love the recipe photographs in the old cookbooks and booklets. Don't be quick to snub the booklets. Many have regional or reader submitted recipes that cannot be found in contemporary cookbooks or on foodie blogs.recipes are a direct copy from the original. I am in no way responsible for the caloric content or the ruination of your diet. Please do not send emails. :P

Banana Doughnuts
Yield: 3 1/2 dozen

5 cups sifted flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 shortening

Bully

Spring has Sprung

Here in the Low Country it is hot. I am sitting in the comfort of my air conditioned abode and not looking forward to acclimating to the sudden heat. I am still longing for chilly weather and comforting sweaters. What happened to Winter and why didn't we get our fair share? Nothing makes you appreciate the Summer heat like a cool respite from it.

Spring is certainly here. The Azaleas have bloomed. Camellias come and gone. Magnolias are slumbering to catch up. Within a week the trees have lost their blooms and are covered in a riot of soft light green. The climax of color on the shrubbery seems to be coming to an end. I am looking forward to heat hearty flowers and the heady aroma of tomatoes at Ambrose Farm.

Hope your weather is allowing you to be grateful as well. Have a safe Spring Break. Enjoy this graphic I found at the Graphic Fairy recently.

Kitchen Geek- Vintage Oven Temperature Chart

     Often reading vintage and antique cookbooks, booklets, promotional recipes and Junior League collaborations I see directions for oven setting at make me want to bang my head on the oven door. {Vintage Voice-over: " Bake this amazing cake in a Slow Oven for 45 minutes or until done."}
 What the Hades? 
     Fear not! A detailed chart of conversion for descriptive oven temperatures and their actual counterparts was found! I am seriously a Kitchen Geek and I am not ashamed to admit it. :D

Table of equivalent oven temperatures
Description	°F	°C
Cool oven	200 °F	90 °C
Very Slow oven	250 °F	120 °C
Slow oven	300–325 °F	150–160 °C
Moderately Slow	325–350 °F	160–180 °C
Moderate oven	350–375 °F	180–190 °C
Moderately Hot	375–400 °F	190–200 °C
Hot oven	400–450 °F	200–230 °C
Very Hot oven	450–500 °F	230–260 °C
Fast oven	450–500 °F	230–260 °C

Pink Slime Outcry- Do something about it

Banding together and using the power of petition is working. Many unjust decisions have been reversed via Change.org. Bank of America stopped user fees after a huge outcry from account holders and petition signers to name one you've probably heard of on the News.

This is the information from Change.org concerning the connective tissue pink slime that has been purchased for use in the school lunch program. My children pack lunches. However the many children who qualify for Free and Reduced lunch programs, this is often their only meal of the day. Nutrition is key. Study after study has shown that nutrition is a key in helping At-Risk students. 

I am angry that this slaughter house offal is offered for sale and infuriated that the Federal Government purchased it for our children. 

Would President Obama let his children purchase public school lunch? I really don't think so. My Chickens (kids) won't be eating it and I'll do everything I can to prevent it from being eaten by anyone's children. -Mamma Cluck

From Change.org

Why This Is Important

"Pink slime" is the term used for a mixture of beef scraps and connective tissue (formerly used only for pet food and rendering) that is treated with ammonia hydroxide to remove pathogens like salmonella and E coli. These so-called "Lean Beef Trimmings," are produced by Beef Products, Inc.
Two former government microbiologists claim that, for political reasons, pink slime was approved for human consumption by USDA over serious safety concerns.  (http://bit.ly/waMMni)
Government and industry records obtained by The New York Times in 2009 showed that "in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays."
Even apart from safety concerns, it is simply wrong to feed our children connective tissues and beef scraps that were, in the past, destined for use in pet food and rendering and were not considered fit for human consumption.
Due to public outcry, fast food giants like McDonald's and Burger King have stopped using pink slime in their food.  But the federal government continues to allow its use in school food and has just authorized the purchase of ground beef which collectively contains an additional 7 million pounds of pink slime for consumption by our nation's children.

Tell the USDA to STOP the use of ground beef containing pink slime in the National School Lunch Program!

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

Rainy day

Rain boots, pansies, and snapdragons, oh my!

SMH {Shake My Head} Ruining Natural

This week's SMH is mind numbing idiocy of wrecking good stuff with crapola. Like the box of Blueberry Muffins proudly able to claim that their are 'real' blueberries in the muffins. And still to amp up the flavor profile, even more artificial blueberry flavoring is added to the mix. Sort of negates using real fruit to begin with. I'm not fooled. I was actually repelled that this rather expensive store chain brand had stuff like this.

 My surprise quickly disappeared when in he Produce section I was horrified to see Grape flavored Apples. Sweet Baby Jesus. Flavored apples? I thought for sure there was a variety that must have a unique flavor profile resembling grapes.  No.
Not even close.
These nightmare apples are lovely, Grade A+ apples that have artificial Grape flavor added to them. The name? Grapple. "Crunches like an Apple. Tastes like a Grape." Crack marketing team at work on this one.

 Why? Why the need? Why adulterate an apple this way?  On the Grapple website and Grapple touts over and over that there is nothing more to their super yummy unique that food grade SAFE grape flavoring. The package clearly states Artificial Flavoring, yet the exact word on the website is not once mentioned. Why? How will Granola Moms react to the fake grape flavor?  Would that turn off the McDonald's Moms? Probably not. If eating McNuggets is A-OKAY, then grape 'flavoring' is the least of your worries, and any apple eating is worth celebration. 

I walked away from that Frankenfood Apple with this thought in my head; is it really that difficult to get a child to eat an apple? Are 'natural' apples uncool? I just hope that my kids don't realize how UNCOOL I really am.

As for the ruination of a good thing. Yuck. Leave it alone. So many of us are turning to home baking, canning, and preserving because of the products exactly like the two above.

Would I buy a convenience prepackaged food? You bet, take out all the chemicals, excitotoxins, fake flavors, fake colors, and take down to as natural as it will go. Market this product like you would any other and see how many parents would love to feel good, honestly good about what they feed their children.