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Tuesday 4 August 2015

Trying to Start

I have a lot of stuff to do, and unfortunately it goes something like, I need to do A.  Before I can do A I need to move B.  Before I move B I need to clear C.  Before I clear C I need to clean D.  Before I clean D I need to give E a good sort out.  However in order to make space to give E a good sort out I need to do A.

I'm just going to dive in.

Last night bear climbed into bed early to pretend he was asleep while DH used the bathroom.  Bless him, bear was flat out before DH had finished a very brief visit, he has been exhausted.  We all have been exhausted.

One random purchase from some time ago is '365 Luncheon Dishes: A Luncheon Dish for Every Day in the Year'.  It is an American publication, and was originally published a long time ago.  I have a modern reprint but there is no information except that it was by 'Anonymous'.  At a rough guess I would say that the recipes pre-date WWI and are from the USA.  Some are attributed to places like 'Table Talk, Philadelphia' or 'Boston Cooking School Magazine'.  The recipes are variable and span the range from curried lobster to marmalade sandwiches.  One recipe is just how to fry a banana to go with cold duck.  It hasn't helped my complete inability to manage a healthy lunch on a regular basis, but has been entertaining.

Spider Cake - Beat 2 eggs very light, add 1 cup sour milk and 1 cup of sweet milk; stir into this 2 cups corn meal and 1/2 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar and one teaspoon each of salt and soda.  Mix and beat thoroughly, and the pour it into the spider; pour over it 1 cup of sweet milk, but do not stir it into the batter. [Italics in original].  Bake in a hot oven for 1/2 an hour.  Slip it carefully onto a platter and serve at once.

I wish I knew what sort of utensil a spider was.

4 comments:

  1. Sybs I have had a good google and found this for your Spidercake puzzle

    http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/06/spider-cake-skillet-corncake-recipe.html

    Lesleyxx

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  2. spider – A spider is a cast-iron skillet or frying pan. At one time, this cooking vessel had three long metal legs (enabling it to be set directly over the coals of a hearth fire). It was from these legs (since discarded) that the utensil received its name. Thought the legs were discarded with the coming of the range, the name has remained in many locations, referring to the cast-iron vessel only.

    I don't pretend that I had any idea what it was.... I googled it and found the definition here http://whatscookingamerica.net/Glossary/S.htm

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  3. I THINK that a spider was a cast iron pan on legs [like a spider!] that people used to use over a camp fire - tis probably on good old google somewhere! Memories of Little House on the Prairie type of stories spring to mind xxxx

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  4. A spider is, indeed, a cast iron skillet with legs which enabled it to be set directly over hot coals or camp fire.

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