Baltimore Coddies Recipe

     The coddie is a purely Baltimore tradition. Go outside of the city and talk about coddies and you'll get sideways looks from people who ask if you mean cod cakes.  Nope, cod cakes are a different animal entirely.  Coddies were once to be found everywhere in Baltimore and it's environs and although the customer base has shrunk over the years, they are still to be found at places like Faidley's Seafood, Pappas Crab House and other venerable Baltimore eateries.

1925 Bread Pudding

     I was looking in my vintage cookbooks the other day and one that I haven't spent much time with is "A Calendar of Dinners" a Crisco sponsored cookbook from 1925.  It has dinner menu plans for an entire year with recipes to go along with most of the items on the various menus.  As I was paging through I found this recipe, now I've always been a fan of bread pudding but I rarely make it as a loaf of bread doesn't last in my house.  This one intrigued me though for 2 reasons, first, I had all the ingredients on hand.  It's a rare day that I find a recipe where I don't have to hunt for some ingredient.

Amish Style Apple Sausage Stuffing

     I'm from Maryland originally, just outside of west Baltimore to be more exact and the traditional recipes for a holiday table are as varied as the many different cultures that make up the citizenry.  The 1940's saw a surge in interest in Amish style cooking, probably because it was frugal and filling, 2 things that were necessary on a wartime rationing diet.

Scalloped Apples & Sweet Potatoes

     In the realm of sweet potato recipes lives the Southern style marshmallow baked sweet potatoes that seem to occupy space on every holiday table in America... right next to the green bean casserole.  I have fought with this denizen of overindulgence for many a year as I cannot abide this sticky sweet concoction yet I love sweet potatoes and yearned to be able to set them free from a syrupy, gooey, marshmallow laden fate.  At first I tried mashed sweet potatoes with a praline topping, better but equally as sweet and almost akin to an uncrusted sweet potato pie.  Luckily this year, thanks to the Gutenberg Project, I was able to find this recipe.

A Christmas Story Meatloaf Dinner: Braised Sweet & Sour Cabbage

     I was in the mood for meatloaf after receiving my vintage Universal Chopper and my mind was immediately drawn to the movie "A Christmas Story" where the family is seen eating the same dinner every night, namely meatloaf, mashed potatoes and braised red cabbage.  So what better way to break in my new kitchen gadget than by recreating that dinner.

Sunday Stealing: The Frankie Meme

Ah Sunday Stealing, the meme's have changed and so have the questions...

What are five things you would like to do more?

     1) Travel

     2) Exercise

     3) Write for my blog

     4&5) I can't really think of anything...

What is your quote to live by?

     "I did it my way"

What was the best thing that happened this week?

     I won an auction for a vintage Universal chopper/grinder.  Now I can start grinding my own meats to use in my recipes.

What is something you are stressed about?

     Time off... Seriously, I work for a school so I have maybe 1 week of work in December and I'm off 3 months in the Summer.

What book has influenced your life?

     I'm such a prolific reader that I can't say any one book but rather all of them as a whole and since I'm rather partial to fantasy books how much can really be applied to real life?

Share a childhood memory

     When I was 2 it was 1976 and the Bicentennial celebrations were in full swing.  Now they say you shouldn't be able to remember back that far but I do remember clear as a bell going to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and seeing the tall sailing ships that had come for the celebrations

What fictional character would you most like to be?

     That's a hard one, maybe Savitar, he's a character from the Dark Hunter novels y Sherrilyn Kenyon

What is something you are proud of?

     That through the last 5 years I've been able to keep this blog a going concern, even if I have to dust it off now and again.

What was the last thing you celebrated?

     My wife's birthday, October 8th.  I completely botched the cake due to a dead can of baking powder.

What are weird things you like?

     I like playing with old recipes and kitchen gadgets, many of my friends think I'm weird because of it.

What is your favorite song to sing?

      Anything Depeche Mode

Name three things you do well.

     1) Cook

     2) Write

     3) Listen

What are your priorities in life?

     I plan on dusting off this blog... again.  I also want to start shooting videos

What is something that scares you?

     Losing my wife

Best book you read this year?

     Styxx by Sherrlyn Kenyon

On Top of Old Meatball, All Covered With Cheese...

     Sub shops were everywhere when I was growing up in Baltimore.  Serving everything from cheesesteaks to pizza subs, cold cuts and meatball subs it was good food at great prices.  While never touted as health food it was what it's loyal customers wanted, a quick filling lunch or something to settle the stomach after a night of drinking.  I have firsthand experience with this, queasy stomach from too much alcohol?  Nothing settles things down like greasy food which makes no sense but who am I to question alchemy?

5 Years On And I'm Still Here...

     Like the song by Steve Miller Band goes, "Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future..."  and the future is now.  I never dreamed I'd have the response that I did when I first started writing this blog but all of you were there, some from the very beginning, giving me encouragement.  Now it's the 5 year anniversary of the blog and yes I've had ups and downs over the years but I still keep coming back, thinking of new things to write about.  Today is not only the 5th anniversary of the blog, it's also my birthday, so we are going to celebrate it... Vintage Style.  Thank you all for being there for me and let's raise a glass to the future.

Hashed Leftovers

     Many times after the holidays we're left with mounds of leftovers from an overindulgent feast of Brobdingnagian proportions and we're completely flummoxed as to what to do with them.  I didn't even cook this much for Christmas but I did have a rather large turkey and now I'm left to decide what to do with the leftovers.  Part of it is getting mixed up into turkey salad using the Chicken Salad Recipe but with the rest I'm left to get creative.

Chesapeake Bay Seasoning For Seafood

     For Marylanders there is nothing like seafood, especially crabs, that much we can all agree on.  What we can't agree on is what seafood seasoning is the best to use with those steamed crabs... or crab cakes, fish, tuna salad, french fries, potato chips, ice cream... you get my drift, we put seafood seasoning on everything. Ask anyone what their favorite seasoning is and I hope you've got time on your hands for the answer.  Of course Old Bay is the overwhelming favorite but you'll also hear J.O. and Wye River mentioned along with a few like me who make their own.

Diner Style Hashed Browned Potatoes

   I love writing about diner style and old sub shop recipes.  Part of it is the thrill of reconstructing a recipe that may have been lost to time had I not saved it, the other part is because this is the world I grew up in.  Being almost 43 I am allowed to have a hindsight perspective on life.  The world we live in now is not the world I grew up in and I'm not entirely sure we've progressed while marching to the never ending tune of progress.