Grandma Ula Aletha (Ritter) Key nee Gifford

Lemon Pie (Filling)

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From what I can tell from Grandma’s recipe box, she LOVED lemon desserts. You are going to see a LOT of lemon recipes. 🙂

3 heaping tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup cold water*
2 1/2 boiling water*
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 tablespoon of butter**
juice of 1 lemon
grated rind of 1/2 lemon

Moisten the corn starch in the cold water, then add the sugar and eggs. Slowly pour the mixture into the boiling water, stirring constantly. Add the lemon juice and grated lemon rind. Turn the heat down and allow to thicken, continuing to stir.

*The water amount is a guess based on other lemon pie recipes I found. Good luck.
**As best as I can find, a lump is anywhere from one to four tablespoons. A tablespoon seems to be standard for lemon pie filling recipes.

Melissa’s Comment: I rearranged the directions here. I am pretty sure a lump of cornstarch and sweet, wet scrambled eggs would have been the result of the originally written method. Not that, you know, it’s happened to me or anything.

Thank you to Samantha, Michael, and Patch for recipe corrections.

Syrup For Popcorn Balls

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2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cook the sugar, syrup, butter, and vinegar until it forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water (soft ball stage on a candy thermometer). Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. Add food coloring if desired.

Melissa’s Comments: I think we can guess what color food coloring Grandma liked to use! *grin*
Now I want popcorn balls.

Refrigerator Pickles

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1 peck cucumbers (may be about 12 pounds)
4 cups sugar
4 cups vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seed

Wash and peel the cucumbers. Slice into 1/4 inch slices. Pack into glass jars. **
Wrap the celery seed and mustard seed in cheesecloth. Mix with the remaining ingredients, stirring until the sugar and salt are dissolved. *** Pour over the sliced cucumbers. Cover and store in the refrigerator. Ready to eat in a few days.

Makes 1 gallon.

**I can’t tell if this is “pack in jars or one large jar” or “pack in jars, but not large jars”. I know that it says no metal or plastic.
***I am guessing you would remove the cheesecloth wrapped spices at this point.

Melissa’s Comments: I note that there is no heat applied in this recipe so I am not sure that the salt and sugar are actually going to dissolve, but then again, I have never made refrigerator pickles!

Oma’s Cookies

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1 cup oleo
1 cup oil
1 egg
2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup regular oatmeal
1 cup Rice Crispies
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup nuts

Mix oleo, oil, egg, sugar, and vanilla. Add the remaining ingredients. ** Bake at 350° for 10 minutes.

**No instructions about what kind of cookies these are, whether scoop or bar. If anyone attempts these, please let me know in the comments which one you tried, and how it went.