New England Bread Pudding

3 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
2 cups dry bread cubes
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup sherry
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mace
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup seedless raisins

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Scald the milk, add the butter, and pour the hot liquid over the bread cubes. Soak about five minutes, then add the sugar, eggs, sherry, and spices. Add the raisins. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish. Set it in a pan of hot water and bake for one hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Crisp Sugar Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream together the butter and sugar and mix into the egg. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and lemon extract and blend. Chill the dough overnight. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll the dough, on a floured pastry cloth, to a thickness of five-eighths of an inch. Press out the desired shapes and cut apart with a floured knife. Transfer to greased cookie sheets and bake seven to ten minutes.

Crumb and Nut Cake

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups fine graham cracker crumbs
1 cup finely chopped nuts
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Combine the crumbs, nuts, and baking powder and add to the butter mixture alternately with the milk. Pour into three greased eight-inch cake tins one and one-fourth inches deep. Bake thirty to thirty-five minutes. Cool and spread chocolate cream frosting in-between the layers.

Rhubarb Pie

Baked 9-inch pie shell
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups water
1 3/4 pounds rhubarb (5 cups, cut)
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Cool the pie shell while preparing the filling. Mix the sugar and one cup of the water and bring to a boil while stirring. Add the rhubarb and cook, stirring as the rhubarb continues to soften. Continue cooking without stirring until tender. Remove the rhubarb with a slotted spoon and reserve. Reheat the syrup to boiling. Blend the cornstarch with the remaining water and add to the boiling syrup. Cook, stirring, until thickened and clear. Add the rhubarb, cool five minutes and turn into the pie shell. Chill. Garnish with whipped cream before serving.

Blackberry Apple Cobbler

1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups blackberries
1 cup apples, cubed
3/4 cup sugar

Cream butter and sugar until well blended. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternately with the milk. Beat until smooth.

In another bowl, mix the blackberries, apples, and 3/4 cup sugar. Pour fruit mixture into a nine-inch cake tin. Pour batter over the fruit mixture. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Famine Soup

For one portion.....


1 teaspoon rice
1 tablespoon maize (cornmeal)
1 cube of turnip, one inch square
half a rasher of streaky bacon
1 pint of water


Boil the rice, maize, turnip, and bacon in one pint of water.

This would, supposedly, sustain a working man.