The only magazine I maintain a subscription for is Taste of Home. I received the subscription as a gift one Christmas and fell in love with the pages of colorful, yummy photographs of good food. After flipping through each issue, the magazine rests on my cookbook holder in the kitchen ready to offer dinner inspiration when this cook’s creative well has run dry.
What draws me in more than the recipes, are the stories of the home cooks who serve as Taste of Home field editors. So many of them refer to cooking with their parents or grandparents. My mother has joked she failed us kids in that regard. Staying in to prepare a meal meant less time outside, and outside with our preferred place to be. However, my mom and both my grandmothers put three home-cooked meals on the table every day with a wave of their magic wooden spoon.
That’s why this menu reminded me so much of “home”. Two recipes from the magazine and two from Grandma June.
Menu 3: Skillet Pork Chops with Apples & Onions, New England Pumpkin Walnut Bread, Steamed Green Beans and Grandma’s Chocolate Pie
Skillet Pork Chops with Apples & Onions (from Taste of Home, Tracey Karst, field editor)
New England Pumpkin Walnut Bread (from Taste of Home, Kim Forni, field editor)
- 1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
- 1/4 tsp. sugar
- 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
For Bread
- 1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
- 4 large eggs
- 3/4 c. canola oil
- 2/3 c. water
- 2 c. sugar
- 1 c. honey
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 c. chopped walnuts, toasted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small skillet, combine oats, sugar and cinnamon; cook and stir over medium heat 4-6 minutes or until oats are toasted. Remove from heat.
In a large bowl, beat pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, sugar, honey and vanilla until well blended. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt and spices; gradually beat into the pumpkin mixture. Fold in walnuts. Transfer to two greased 9 x 5-in. loaf pans. Sprinkle tops with oat mixture.
Bake 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.
Steamed Green Beans
Pick green beans from garden, clean, cut and steam. Grandma spent many hours in my kitchen helping me put up green beans for the winter. We’d stand over the sinks and ramble on about life, memories, kids, baking . . . I’ve got a pile of beans to finish today. Gosh, I wish she were here.
Chocolate Pie (from my Great Grandma King and Grandma June)
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 8 T. flour
- 3 T. chocolate
Mix well. Bring 1 1/2 cup cold water to a boil. Add dry ingredients and stir constantly. Add 2 T. butter after the above has thickened. Add 1 tsp. vanilla. Cook together. When cool pour into baked pie shell. Top with cool whip.
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