granulated sugar – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

14-21: Pear Pandowdy

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods October 13, 2020October 12, 2020all-purpose flour, American, apples, autumn, baked goods, baking powder, blackberries, blueberries, brown sugar, butter, cherries, cinnamon, dessert, easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, frozen, fruit, granulated sugar, hot desserts, lemon juice, nutmeg, peaches, pears, pie crust, plums, raspberries, salt, strawberries, toppings, vegetarian

Here’s a very basic dessert recipe: 14-21: Pear Pandowdy. Pandowdies are typically made with apples, but Simply Delicious offers a pear variation which is also popular. Both are in season right now, so either one would work for this recipe if you’re looking for something to do with all of that fall produce.

Here’s more info on pandowdies, courtesy of New England.com:

An old-fashioned favorite, the pandowdy is, by definition, a cooked fruit dessert sweetened with maple syrup or molasses and topped with a pie pastry. The name refers to the act of “dowdying” the crust — that is, breaking it up with a knife and pressing it into the bubbling juices — midway through baking. While it’s not the prettiest of pastries, what it lacks in streamlined good looks it more than makes up for in rich flavor.
Yankee Magazine, August 2020

Let’s see how close Simply Delicious gets to their definition. They sell this thing much better than I do.

14-23: Almond-Baked Sliced Pears

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 30, 2020September 30, 2020à la mode, all-purpose flour, almonds, apricots, batter, butter, creamed, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, granulated sugar, hot desserts, lemon juice, meringue, nuts, peaches, pears, ramekins, recipes, sliced, stiff peaks, toppings, untested, vegetarian

A LOT of the dessert recipes in Simply Delicious feature almonds, and 14-23: Almond-Baked Sliced Pears is a perfect example of these type of “semi-fancy” recipes. I’m not sure why almonds are featured so heavily in the book (or 1980s cuisine in general), but I suppose it’s to lend a sense of haute cuisine to something that would be (in reality) executed in a home kitchen.

The 1980s were all about stylish and flashy veneers without much to back it up underneath, even when it came to food, and this recipe is a perfect encapsulation of it. The fancy top covers up the cheap canned pears underneath, dazzling you with a hint of something high-class to distract you from the less impressive core which makes up the bulk of the dessert. Maybe some things should have just stayed in the 80s.

1-31: Crab Cocktail

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters August 23, 2020August 23, 2020appetizers, avocados, chili sauce, chilled, cocktail, crab, cubed, dairy-free, diced, dill, dressing, easy, egg-free, emulsion, fairly expensive, flaked, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grated, hors d'oeuvres, horseradish, iceberg lettuce, krab, lettuce, lunch, mushrooms, olive oil, parsley, peeled, recipes, red wine vinegar, salads, seafood, shellfish, sliced, spicy, sunflower oil, tomatoes, untested

Feeling a bit of déjà vu? Maybe you’ve seen 1-31: Crab Cocktail before, or maybe you haven’t. I was doing some recent experimentation on the backend of my website, and long story short: I needed to do a rollback to an earlier version and this one got deleted. So I’m reposting/rewriting it again–however, you’ll miss whatever witty remarks I included with the first version.

I remember saying something about this being a good option for a meal instead of an appetizer (since there’s no parties allowed), and that you should picture yourself eating it near the coast with the breeze in your hair, since between COVID and wildfires, I don’t know if we’re ever getting to leave the house again.

14-8: Baked Alaska

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods July 4, 2020July 27, 20201998 dinner, 4th of July, American, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cake pan, cakes, cognac, cooking class, dessert, egg whites, eggs, fairly easy, favorites, folded, granulated sugar, hot desserts, Hutton house, ice cream, inexpensive, jam/jelly/preserves, layers, liqueur, liquor, meringue, pastry bag, piped, raspberries, recipes, revisited, rum, stiff peaks, strawberries, summer, the sims, vegetarian

Today is Independence Day here in the U.S., so let’s do one of my favorite desserts and recipes from this book, 14-8: Baked Alaska. Obviously Simply Delicious didn’t invent this dish–it’s an American dessert that’s existed since Civil War times and is so well known you can even make it as a Sim.

I have a history with this particular version of the dish, however. I first made it as my “showstopper” dessert for a big family dinner I cooked as a teenager (along with a similarly-aged family friend) many years ago.

I also taught about 200 K-8 kids (ages 5-13ish) how to make this recipe and several others as part of an after-school cooking class program that was one of my first teaching-related jobs. I’ve been waiting YEARS to write this one, so now it’s your turn with it.

2-31: Smoked Chicken Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 27, 2020July 2, 2020basil, breasts, canola oil, cheese, cherry tomatoes, chicken, dinner, dressing, dried herbs, dry mustard, easy, fairly inexpensive, granulated sugar, herbs and spices, lunch, Mozzarella, oregano, parsley, Provolone, recipes, rolls, salads, salt, sandwiches, sliced, smoked chicken, smoked turkey, spinach, sunflower oil, thyme, tomatoes, turkey, untested, vegetable oil, white wine vinegar

Given the header picture, I suppose it’s not much of a secret that I’ve made some adaptations to 2-31: Smoked Chicken Salad. Namely, that I’ve changed it from a salad to a sandwich. Here’s the thing–it’s a sad salad as written, but can be made into a pretty decent sandwich that doesn’t require anything different than what’s already required/recommended.

See those rolls in the back of the picture (the ones suggested in the blurb above)? Here’s the quick and dirty: cut one open, take the (very few) salad ingredients, stack inside, eat. Not much more to it than that, but if you’d like to see how that went for me in greater detail, please continue reading.

16-42: Easy Lime Pie

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 6, 2020July 2, 2020butter, cottage cheese, creamed, crushed, dessert, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, food processor, fruit, garnish, gift ideas, graham crackers, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, juiced, lemon balm, lime juice, limes, melted, mint, peeled, pie crust, pies, recipes, twice-baked, untested

If you were around in the 1980s-1990s, you may remember the obsession with low-fat everything, and finding ways to make “sinful indulgences” into something “guilt-free“. Note the deliberate choice of words, and that we still use that type of psychological framing around food today (and have been for a long time, even prior to the era in question).

The “low-calorie swap” in 16-42: Easy Lime Pie is cottage cheese, which was all the rage in the 1970s as a “healthy” option, but could still be found in a lot of recipes throughout the 80s and 90s.

I feel like even Simply Delicious didn’t really know how to make this pie sound appealing–do you think halved grapes as a garnish can be considered something notable? You can definitely tell this particular recipe was aimed at the dieting/low-calorie crowd.

15-20: Apple Compôte

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 1, 2020April 1, 2020almonds, apple cider, applejack, apples, basted, brandy, brown sugar, Calvados, cold desserts, compôte, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, granulated sugar, inexpensive, meringue, mint, nuts, recipes, sliced, stiff peaks, toasted, untested, vegan, vegetarian, wax paper

Let’s get the first question out of the way right now. Compôte means “mixture” in French, so 15-20: Apple Compôte is essentially fancy applesauce. Don’t even worry about exerting the effort to mash the apples–these are just syrupy slices.

Some of you might have thought of pie filling when you saw “compôte”–I know I did. There’s actually differences between jam, jelly, preserves, conserves, and compote–I still don’t know if this iteration matches up with their definition, but here’s a recipe from my same trusted source (Serious Eats/Stella Parks) for essentially the same thing we’re making here.

14-9: Glazed Crêpes with Pears

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 23, 2020March 23, 2020all-purpose flour, batter, broiled, butter, canola oil, cored, crêpes, dessert, dusted, eggs, fairly easy, fruit, glazed, Grand Marnier, granulated sugar, griddle, hot desserts, inexpensive, liqueur, liquor, melted, milk, pears, peeled, powdered sugar, recipes, salt, untested, vegetable oil, vegetarian

I think 14-9: Glazed Crêpes with Pears might be my final untested crêpe recipe from Simply Delicious–but there may be others in there. I’ll even give you a quick spoiler (since this recipe is kind of boring…another spoiler) for upcoming posts–there are more recipes out there than what I had originally. I know because I found (and purchased) some in a local Goodwill.

I’ve still got quite a few posts to go before I dig into some of the *NEW* recipes (and show you the book they came in), but for now, you can read about yet another crêpe recipe after the jump. But this time, with pears! And glaze!

2-18: Luncheon Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 19, 2020April 8, 20201980s, blue cheese, boiled, butter, cheese, cottage cheese, croutons, dressing, easy, emulsion, Feta, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, healthy, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, lettuce, lunch, melted, nuts, olive oil, Romaine lettuce, salads, salt, sautéed, tarragon, untested, vegetarian, Waldorf, walnuts, white wine vinegar

Reporting LIVE (to print), from an undisclosed location in Northern California, USA, currently sheltering-in-place and teleworking due to COVID-19/coronavirus/the apocalypse. It’s getting crazy out there, y’all–stay safe and healthy. And wash your hands.

Since we’re all stuck inside for a while, and I’ve got a big backlog of these to get through (over 50), here’s one more thing to pass the time. 2-18: Luncheon Salad is pure 1980s–turn up the vaporwave (for A E S T H E T I C), find your best matching sweatsuit, and crack open a Tab.

I don’t remember feeling like this salad was a treat–more like a punishment. If you can find some cottage cheese in the store right now, go for it–just don’t invite your friends. #socialdistancing

14-22: Strawberry-Peach Cobbler

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 25, 2020February 26, 20204th of July, à la mode, apples, baking powder, biscuit cutters, biscuits, butter, cobbler, cookie cutters, cored, dessert, dough, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, fruit, gift ideas, granulated sugar, hot desserts, hulled, nectarines, party food, pastry, peaches, peeled, recipes, salt, sliced, strawberries, summer, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

Finally, we’ve reached the first recipe (for this project) made in my new (to you) kitchen: 14-22: Strawberry-Peach Cobbler. It was summer and 4th of July, so something with fruit that goes well with ice cream was bound to be a hit.

Speaking of 4th of July, I made 2-37: Chicken-Salami-Rice Salad for a party that I attended with a guy that I had just started dating. 10 years later, this is the first recipe I cooked in my very first house, that I bought with that same guy (who I ended up marrying not long after I made that first recipe).

Told you this book has some memories.

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