Most of the time we had ice cream in our freezer. Well, maybe ice cream isn't quite accurate. It was usually ice MILK. Now some people might turn up their noses at that, but we enjoyed it immensely. Ice cream (and ice milk) came in cartons back then. There was no such thing as round tubs of cookie dough ice cream, or double chocolate fudge. There were usually only a few flavors. What I remember was chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and neapolitan. Neapolitan was all three of the basic flavors in one carton. I always felt like I ended up getting strawberry, which was my least favorite. The other flavors were all picked over by the time I got mine. If you wanted to get very fancy you bought chocolate chip mint. It all came in half gallon cartons, which were slightly rectangular boxes. If there was no other dessert planned on any given evening, this sufficed just fine.
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| Newer (and slightly smaller size) of ice cream carton |
My mom baked a lot of cakes. She made them from scratch when I was very young, then later used cake mixes. She made her own frosting though. She had one recipe from the cookbook--something like "seven minute frosting". It was a rather bitter-tasting chocolate frosting made by boiling the ingredients for seven minutes. That was her go-to frosting. I don't believe that canned frostings existed then, and she would never have used them anyway. The best thing about Mom's cakes was licking the beaters and bowls! She gave a beater each to my sister and me, then one of us would get the bowl and the other the mixing spoon. We'd bring her the dishes when we had thoroughly licked them, with the "evidence" all over our faces! Mom also made pretty good pies. I can remember watching her whip the meringue for a lemon meringue pie. Once in awhile we enjoyed brownies.
One of the festive desserts Mom made was Jello Poke Cakes. These were single layer cakes with holes poked in them with the handle of a wooden spoon. Then hot, just-made Jello was poured into the holes. The Jello would spread inside the layer of the cake, and it was delicious! This comes out best using white or yellow cake, so you can see the Jello and the taste of it comes through. You can use Cool Whip or another light whipped topping to hide the holes and add pizzazz.
One of our favorites was brownie pudding. You can still find the recipe for that in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, among others. It was a delightfully rich, chocolately pudding and cake all rolled into one. You put the cake ingredients in the pan first, then the liquid for the pudding on top. When it was baked, they had magically changed places! Brownie pudding was best served warm, with a dollop of whipped cream on top, or ice cream on the side.
Something that we ate a lot was fruit salad. We had it with our evening meal, not as a dessert. I've served our fruit salad to many people over the years, and they had never heard of using the method we used. Everyone has seemed to enjoy it, so I'd like to share the recipe with you. The fruits used in this recipe are readily available all year round--you can use canned oranges in place of fresh ones, if need be. It is not so much about the quantity of ingredients, because you can add and subtract various fruits to your taste and the size of the army you're feeding.
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| Our fruit salad, made with two of every fruit |
FRUIT SALAD
at least 1 apple
at least 1 orange (alternatively, you can use a can or two of mandarin oranges)
at least 1 banana
marshmallows
mayonnaise
Slice the fruit into bite-sized pieces. Put it all into a large mixing bowl. Add marshmallows--lots if you want your salad sweeter, less if not). Add mayonnaise, just a little at a time. (I used about 1/4 cup or so when using 2 of each fruit). Mix everything together until the fruit and marshmallows are just coated with mayonnaise. You don't want too much mayonnaise, so be very careful when adding it to the fruit mixture! You can always add more, but taking it out is very difficult!
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