¾ cup pastry flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
Whipped cream or Nutmeg Sauce (recipe gollows)
Preheat the oven to 375°G F.
In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice.
Arrange the apples in a greased pie plate or shallow baking dish (8 × 8 × 2 inches).
In a medium bowl, blend together with your fingers the butter, flour, sugar, and spices as for a piecrust. Press this mixture over the top of the apples.
Bake until golden brown and the juices are bubbling, 1 to 1 ¼ hours.
Serve with whipped cream or Nutmeg Sauce.
NUTMEG SAUCE
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all—purpose flour
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
Pinch of salt
2 to 3 tablespoons water
In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the sugar, flour, nutmeg, and salt. Gradually whisk in the water, whisking until well combined.
Allow the mixture to cook at a rolling boil for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove from the stove and serve while hot over the apple crisp.
I DON’T KNOW why the dogs like this but they do.
Horses love apples. However, never turn a horse out in a field with an apple tree that’s still producing fruit because the horses will eat apples that aren’t ripe, tearing them off the branches, or they’ll eat the overripe fruit that’s fallen to the ground. Either way, you’ve got a sick horse.
I enjoy sitting in an apple tree in springtime. The activity dazzles me—bees everywhere, caterpillars, and birds chasing after the caterpillars. For a cat, an apple tree is a little bit of heaven.
Human
BUCKINGHAM MAYONNAISE
(Recipe from 1872)
Makes 1 ⅔ cups
½ cup distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons (¼ stick) unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons dry mustard
1 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the vinegar and butter together until boiling.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, and dry mustard. Whisk in the flour and salt.
Whisk the egg mixture into the boiling vinegar mixture. Boil until thick, whisking constantly, about 2 minutes.
MOTHER LIKES TO eat mayonnaise bread. She piles the mayo on the bread, happy as she can be. I, too, love mayonnaise and if I don’t get a teaspoonful, I steal her mayonnaise bread when she’s not looking. If you’re in danger of getting caught, throw the bread on the floor and blame the dogs.
Cat/Dog/Human
CHRISTMAS GOOSE
Serves 6
1 (8-pound) freshly dressed goose, washed, patted dry, extra fat, neck, gizzard removed (Cut off long neck skin.)
Salt and pepper
Potato and Bread Stuffing (recipe follows) or use a packaged mix
4 cups water
2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in ¼ cup water
Preheat the oven to 350°G F.
Sprinkle the salt and pepper inside the cavity of the goose. Fill the cavity with the prepared stuffing. Secure the stuffed cavity with skewers.
Place the bird, breast side down, on a wire rack in a roasting pan. Add 2 cups water to the pan and cover with heavy-duty foil.
Roast for 4 hours.
During the last 20 minutes of baking time, increase the temperature to 450°G F.; remove the foil and turn breast side up to brown.
Remove the goose from the roasting pan and place on a serving platter while making the gravy. Make the gravy by removing the fat from the roasting pan. Place the roasting pan over the burners on top of the stove and add 2 cups water to the brownings. Thicken with the cornstarch dissolved in water. Stir over low heat until all the brownings have dissolved and the mixture has thickened.
POTATO AND BREAD STUFFING
Makes 6 cups of stuffing
½ cup water
½ cup chooped celery with leaves
¼ cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground flack pepper
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Pinch of saffron
2 cups mashed potatoes
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups frsh bread cubes
In a 1-quart saucepan, bring the water to a boil; add the celery, onion, salt, pepper, parsley, and saffron. Boil approximately 7 minutes, until the celery is clear.
In a large bowl, lightly mix the celery mixture with the potatoes, beaten eggs, and bread cubes until well combined.
At this point, the mixture is ready to be stuffed into the cavity of the bird. If used as a side dish, bake in a buttered dish in a preheated oven at 350°G F. for 30 minutes.
THIS RECIPE HAS been in the Buckingham family (Mother’s maternal family) since their beginnings in America, 1620. Written first in the family Bible, it was updated when non-wood-burning stoves became popular. As the first Buckingham (Thomas) fled England, we figure it’s an old English recipe. The English consider goose a great delicacy.
You’ve got to love a people who, at the end of the fourteenth century, made Dick Whittington the Lord High Mayor of London because he had a smart cat.
Because it’s special and takes time, we only cook a goose for Christmas, which brings up another Buckingham peculiarity. They always have at least one tabby cat. They believe that a tabby cat helped the Blessed Virgin Mother at Christmas. When baby Jesus couldn’t get to sleep the tabby hopped in the manger and purred the baby to sleep while helping keep him warm. The cat’s reward was to have an M marked on her forehead, Mary’s cat. To this day some tabby cats have the M. They are descendants of Mary’s cat. I have the M on my forehead.
Human
JUTS’S MORTGAGE MINCEMEAT
Makes enough filling for 2 pies
1 pound chuck meat, cut into small cubes
1 cup cider
1 ⅔ cups New Orleans—style molasses
8 apples, cored, peeled, and cut into small cubes
6 ounces beef suet
2 cups currants
3 cups seedless raisins
1 cup citron, diced fine
2 ½ cups sugar
1 cup sipping whiskey
½ teaspoon ground cloves
3 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground mace
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
½ tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
fest from 1 ½ lemons
In a large Dutch oven, bring the meat and cider to a boil over medium-high heat. Skim off the froth and stir in the molasses. Stir in everything else, reduce the heat to low, and stir, and stir, and stir every 15 minutes for 3 to 5 hours, or until the mixture is very thick and jamlike.