Mama Weber's Fudge (29/325)

Barbara Gassmann's Wedding

The Relation

Barbara Gassmann Harris is the fourth daughter of Gertie and Zean. She would be my great-aunt and was allegedly a very classy lady. I, personally, absolutely love this photo Mary Pat Gassmann (Gert>Henry) found of Barbara on her wedding day. In a lot of these pictures, people seem to be a little stuff, but her smile in this photo is genuinely radiant. The wedding was held at the Presidio of San Francisco.

Slow Boil

The Process

I have never made fudge before (I should really keep track of all these culinary cherries I keep popping) so this was bound to be an adventure. Especially with the anecdote about it never failing... which made me ask myself, is making fudge hard?

First of all, I don't what type of mutant walnuts were growing back in the day, but I would love to see a walnut the size of a 1/3 stick of butter! That seems massive. I melted the mutant walnut-size butter piece per the instructions and added all the other good stuff.

Stir to stiff??

I want to put out there that I followed this recipe pretty carefully. I added the squares of chocolate and boiled for 5 minutes and took it off the stove right at 5 on the dot. I added a half cup of pecans (now a staple in my house since starting this project) and the vanilla. I stirred until it was stiff, and poured into a buttered pan.

Half an hour goes by, and it's still pretty liquidy. Another hour goes by, and the viscosity has not changed. I tossed it in the fridge at this point thinking maybe it needed to chill? I left it overnight and by morning, it seemed to retain its shape! But... something was amiss.

Pre-chill

The Feedback

Overall, not bad. I think I messed up somewhere. Maybe, I should have used an electric mixer to beat the mixture after cooking? I really only stirred it, there wasn't a whole lot of "beating" going on. It tasted like fudge! Sweet and chocolatey and all that. The texture though... it wasn't creamy or smooth like fudge should be. It was grainy. On top of that, the nuts had gotten soggy and soft overnight. My climbing friends said it was still good, which it was! But I am unsatisfied with the texture.

The Receipt

MAMA WEBER’S FUDGE - CC80
Barbara Gassmann Harris+

Melt butter the size of a walnut – ⅓ stick.

Add 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, ¾ cup cream or half and half, ¼ cup Karo and a pinch of salt.

Let come to a boil slowly. Boil one minute. Add 2 squares of Baker’s chocolate. Boil 5 minutes after chocolate melts, stirring constantly. Take from fire. Add teaspoon vanilla and ½ cup chopped nuts. Beat until stiff. Pour into buttered pan.

Never fails – even when it’s raining.

Goat Cheese & Sun-Dried Tomato Torte 28/325

Jim & Me at CC13

The Relation

Jim Eagleson (again??) is my first cousin, twice removed. He is the author of many a happy birthday post in the Cousin Club Facebook page. If you remember, he is also the wonderful man who sent me the digital copy of the cousin club receipts book. Not only do I have that to thank him for, but I pull many of these photos from the Facebook page, a good portion from his happy birthday posts! So, if I haven't said it enough, THANKS JIM!

Cheesy Mixture

The Process

Man, I love goat cheese. It is just... amazing. This torte? An absolute delight to make. I mean, there were challenges, but (spoiler alert) it's delicious. Also, expensive. Twelve ounces of goat cheese puts you back about $15, so make sure you're serving only the classiest of guests.

I am going to overemphasize the need for a 6-inch springform pan. I did not have this particular piece of equipment and tried to use a regular 6-inch cake pan. I figured, if I created a wax paper nest inside of the pan, I could easily pull the finished creation out of the pan.

NOT a springform pan

I put the first layer of cheese mixture down, followed by pesto, followed by more cheese mixture. At this point, I must have just entirely blacked out, because I topped it with the sun-dried tomatoes, entirely skipped the second layer of pesto and third layer of cheese. I quickly realized my mistake and tried to scrape off the tomatoes and add the right layers.

With the new layers added, this thing was about a half to one full inch over the top of the cake pan. It's got height. I wrapped the whole thing in saran wrap and put it in the freezer. Why the freezer? Because I was supposed to be at a game night in an hour with the torte, and receipt clearly says to refrigerate for several hours. Oops.

Tall Boy

One thing is for sure, the torte came out of the pan pretty easily. The wax paper, however, was not so easy to remove. I'm highly confident some of it was consumed.

The Feedback

Climbing Pals Brooke, Dom, and Grant found the torte delightful despite its lack of curb appeal. I served it with Ritz crackers and Triscuits. As there were four of us, and approximately two pounds of torte, I had a fair amount leftover. If you also end up with leftovers, I highly recommend making paninis with chicken and spinach with it! Amazing.

The Receipt

Not pretty... but yummy!

GOAT CHEESE & SUN-DRIED TOMATO TORTE - CC04
Jim Eagleson

8 oz softened cream cheese
12 oz goat cheese
½ lb softened butter
1 cup basil pesto
1 cup drained minced sun-dried tomatoes

Place the cheeses and butter in a bowl and beat until they are well blended and fluffy. Butter the sides and bottom of a 6-inch spring form pan. Layer ⅓ of the cheese mixture in the bottom and spread half the pesto over it. If the pesto is very oily, drain it a little do it isn’t so runny. Repeat. Spread the remaining third of the cheese mixture and cover with the minced tomatoes. Place saran over the top and refrigerate for several hours. Remove from fridge ½ hour before serving to allow torte to soften. Remove the spring form pan and serve with bread or crackers.

Thin Butter Cookies 27/325

Mama Weber

The Relation

The ma'am, the myth, the legend, Mama Weber is my great-great-grandmother. Mad respect for this wonderful lady. I mean, she had 16 kids!!! For so many reasons that seems impossible. Firstly, carrying and giving birth sixteen times??? Holy smokes. And then actually having to raise them! Having any more than one or two kids gives me anxiety... but sixteen? I don't know how she did it. The picture to the right was colorized by Brad Weber (Anton> William> Tracy> James)

The Process

$9.00 nuts

This is another one of those recipes where some of the ingredients are hidden in the instructions paragraph, so read carefully. You may notice the recipe calls for hickory nuts. What are hickory nuts, you may ask? Hickory nuts are the fruit of the hickory tree. They are in the walnut family and taste very similar to pecans. According to Genie (Gert>Henry>m. John), you can use pecans and hickory nuts interchangeably for the most part. But what fun would that be?

I went on the hunt for hickory nuts at my grocery store to no avail. I checked every single label in the bulk nut section, but alas, no hickory nuts to be found. So, I started to search the interwebs. Amazon sells a whopping 20 grams, which is less than an ounce, of chopped hickory nuts for $9.00. These nuts were expensive! But, I sucked it up and bought the nuts, which, but the way, were not even eligible for Prime Two-Day Delivery *big sigh*.

Roll shaped?

Hickory nuts in hand, (over a week later *eye-roll*) I started these cookies. The first part of the recipe is pretty simple, just mix all the ingredients, right? Right. Now, it tells you to roll. Roll the dough out? Like, with a rolling pin? Or create a roll, as in a cylindrical shape out of the dough?? I couldn't tell you. I had enough dough, so I figured, why not both?

Half of the dough I made into a long cylinder (not unlike the Pillsbury sugar cookie dough that you can buy pre-made at the store) and tossed it in the fridge. After 30 minutes, I took the roll out and used a knife to slice little circle cookies. I tried to get them as thin as possible, but this is much harder than it looked.

or rolled out?

The other half of the dough, I balled up and put it in the fridge. 30 minutes later, I rolled it out to 1/4 inch thickness and used cookie cutters to pop out some squirrels (of course) and stars (why not?). Once cut out, I placed the squirrels on parchment-lined baking sheets and chilled them again (a trick I learned from my mom to help them keep their shape and not turn into blobs).

With all of the cookies, I coated them with the egg whites and cinnamon sugar (I do a 1:5 ratio on cinnamon to sugar). I added hickory nuts to the tops of some, pecans to others, and left a few without any nuts at all (for the nut allergy peeps in my life).

I should have timed them, but I forgot, so I think I ended up baking them for about 8 minutes? Maybe more, maybe less.

The Feedback

Mama Weber is certainly right, this recipe makes a ton of cookies. I distributed them to my office, climbing gym and kept a few for myself. They are very nice, light cookies, great for drinking a cup of coffee with. They don't snap like a hard cookie, but they aren't super chewy either. Very floury. Overall, good bake. And the hickory nuts? They were good! But honestly, just use pecans.

The Receipt

THIN BUTTER COOKIES - CC80
Mama Weber+

1 lb butter
6 cups flour
2 eggs
1 cup sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Mix well. Add eggs and flour. Roll. Chill. Cut very thin. Brush with slightly beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon mixed together. Add chopped hickory nuts to tops – press in lightly. Bake at 300° until lightly browned. Half the recipe makes a lot of cookies

Aunt Suzanne's Cubes 26/325

Lil Baby Suzanne

The Relation

Janet David (Dot) submitted this recipe, but I only think it fair to pay tribute to the name on the actual receipt, Aunt Suzanne. Suzanne (Suzie according to the handbook) would be my great-great-aunt, making her one of the OG 16. She is the second youngest child of Mama & Papa Weber. According to Julia Weber (Bud), Bud, her older brother, used to call her " Toots" like toot-toot of a train whistle.

The Process

I do not like pickles. Maybe this is one of those things where I just need to try them on 10 different occasions and build up a tolerance, but the smell, the texture, the whole idea of pickles is unnerving. Imagine my joyous reaction when I realized there was not one, not two, but nine pickle receipts. WHY??

Nothing like sugar & vinegar

Okay, pickle rant over. I figured I would leave the watermelon pickle receipts for summer, but I could at least tackle one of them now. Let me just tell you now, this one probably calls for a remake. We'll get to that later.

Overall, not a complicated receipt! You boil everything together and pour it over sliced cucumbers in a jar. I used a pint jar (because it is what I had on me). I wasn't sure exactly how to slice the cucumbers or how many I needed. I just tried to cut them so I could fit as many as I could in the jar. In hindsight, I probably should have cut them into cubes considering the name of the recipe...

I was able to fit 1.5 cucumbers into my pint jar and almost all of the pickling liquid (is there a real name for that stuff?). There were no instructions about what I should do next. So, I looked it up on the interwebs. Allegedly, I could just toss the whole jar into the fridge for five days and I would have

Definitely not cubes

pickles!

The Feedback

To quote Roommate Lora "I don't know what this is, but it is certainly not a pickle." They certainly didn't look very pickley either. Roommate Lora also questioned if I used pickling cucumbers, which, of course, I didn't know existed? And perhaps I needed to let them pickle for longer??? And cut them up smaller??? SOS, family, please tell me how to fix these pickles. I need help.

As compact as possible

The Receipt

AUNT SUZANNE’S CUBES - CC90
Janet David

¾ cup sugar
¾ cup vinegar
1 tsp curry
1 tsp salt

Bring to boil. Pour over sliced cucumbers packed in jars. Cool and refrigerate.

Shrimp Jambalaya 25/325

Ted, Zean, Neal & John

The Relation

Zean is my dad and John is my uncle. Let me just take a moment to say how wonderful a human being Zean Zuber Gassmann is (John is also great, but, y'know, he's not my dad). Zean has been involved, in one way or another, with all of the Cousin Club reunions. If memory serves me correctly, he was in charge of planning the one in 1990, before you could email out invites and had to mail everything. That's mind-blowing for a young millennial like myself. Zean is also known for being the friendliest person ever. Nine out of ten times, if there is a new person in a room, he will just bop right up to them and introduce himself (this is a trait I have definitely inherited). Photo to the right is from Hood to Coast 2019, left to right: Ted(Dot>Ted), Zean, Neal, and John (all 3 are Gert>Henry).

Proud UNLV Alum Kiara

The Process

A word to the wise: Double this recipe. It’s not that it is a small serving, it’s just SO GOOD.

I unintentionally doubled the amount of shrimp and sausage in the receipt. Mostly because the packages I bought of both items happened to be double that amount, but also because we love protein! College Pal Kiara came over to be my sous chef on this one and brought a bottle of wine. More on the wine later.

Scratch n Sniff

Now, as Kiara and I both are graduates of the famous Hospitality College at UNLV, we should be experts in the kitchen. But alas, neither of us is anywhere near that level. Also, we were drinking, so we were even worse off than usual. Kiara was in charge of cutting up the veggies into tiny pieces. Had John been there, he probably would have requested smaller pieces, but again, we’re not perfect. Also, can we talk about how onions and peppers sautéed in butter is just the best smell ever?

We added in the rest of the ingredients (besides the rice and shrimp) and brought it to a boil in the biggest pot in my house. At this point, we were a few glasses deep into the wine and I made a mistake. I tossed the rice in at the same time at the shrimp. The recipe specifically states to add shrimp first, then add rice and reduce to simmer.

Double the sausage, why not?

BUT HERE IS THE THING: We left the rice cooking for long enough for the two of us to finish off the bottle of wine. And by two of us, I mean mostly me since Kiara had to drive home. But it had to be at least 30 to 40 minutes! I know this is my own father’s recipe, but I gotta say it: Add the rice well before the shrimp.

The Feedback

Literally so good. I knew it was going to be fire since I’ve had it many times before… But holy cow does it hit the spot. We polished off all but one measly serving that I ate for lunch the next day. I have to say the shrimp was a little overcooked (heed my suggestion in the last paragraph!). But again, STILL SO DELICIOUS!

The Receipt

SHRIMP JAMBALAYA - CC90

John and Zean Gassmann

1 lb shrimp

½ lb link sausage – cooked or pre-cooked

1 medium bell pepper

1 medium onion

2 Tbs butter or margarine

16 oz tomato sauce

1 clove garlic – more if you like garlic

¼ tsp black pepper

1 cup water

1 cup uncooked white rice

1 bay leaf

Tabasco sauce to taste

Clean shrimp and set aside. Chop green pepper, onion and garlic into miniscule pieces – John doesn’t want to recognize any vegetables. Sauté chopped veggies in the butter or margarine 2 or 3 minutes. Add chopped sausage. Sauté 1 more minute. Add all other ingredients except shrimp and rice. Stir to boil. When boiling, add shrimp and cook 5 minutes. Add rice and reduce heat to simmer. Cook covered until rice is soft. Add salt and hot sauce to taste.

Serves 6 – or 2 Gassmanns in marathon training.

Spinach Ricotta Pie 24/325

Polly Herz Center

The Relation

Polly Herz (Pauline > Martha) is my second cousin, once-removed. She is the grandchild of Pauline (Polly) the third eldest child of Mama & Papa Weber. I hear people refer to her as Pretty Polly fairly often, so I imagine she was quite the looker (this is referring to the original Polly, not that Polly Herz is not also a looker. I think she looks dashing in her Polly green shirt).

The Process

I know this isn’t really a pie pie but, this is the first pie I have ever made. This is very important to know because I made a lot of hearty assumptions about making pies that paid off pretty well.

1/2 pound spinach

I looked up what “cut together” meant as I imagined that I might have to combine ingredients using a knife and a cutting motion. But, it seems like it’s just a fancy way of saying mix. After missing my ingredients I formed a ball. That is the last we hear about the ball until a few sentences later we hear about an “unbaked crust”. Using my powers of deductive reasoning, I fixed the ball eventually becomes the crust. So I tossed it in the fried to chill for a bit.

In case you’re wondering what half a pound of spinach looks like, here ya go. I sautéed up my fresh spinach and onion real good in about four tablespoons of butter. Unable to find regular ricotta cheese in a suitable size, I bought the low-fat version. I also used parmesan cheese, mostly because it’s what I had on hand. I don’t think I added any nutmeg or basil, but that’s what I get for not close reading. At this point, I put everything in the fridge and went to bed because I was tired.

AM I DOING THIS RIGHT?

Cut to 5:00 AM the next morning. I got out the chilled ball aka crust. Again – I have never made a pie, so I was kind of winging it here. I tossed down some flour and rolled the dough out until it would cover my whole baking pan. The crust was thinner than my thinnest rolling pin rim (1/4in). I had a pie dish, but I couldn’t find it, so I used a round cake tin. I sprayed the cake pan with Pam and delicately placed my crust inside. I tried to smooth out any ridges the best I could.

I piled the filling into the crust (who’s edges I didn’t chop off) and then very carefully spread the sour cream on top. She was tossed into the oven for the full 45 minutes. Once taken out, she was allowed to cool for maybe 10 minutes before I had to put her in a cooler and take her to work.

my perfect pie baby

The Feedback

Well, once the pie reached her final destination at 7:00 PM that night, she was allowed to warm up in the over for an hour on the “warm” setting. This didn’t do a whole lot as Old Coworkers still ended up microwaving their pieces. Great feedback though! The crust was really nice and held up perfectly. It didn’t really go with the curry Old Coworker Beth made, but hey, everything was delicious!

The Receipt

YUM

SPINACH RICOTTA PIE - CC80
Polly Herz

CRUST
     1 cup flour
     ⅓ cup butter
     ¼ tsp salt
     3 Tbs water

FILLING
     1 lb ricotta or cottage cheese
     3 beaten eggs
     ½ lb fresh chopped spinach
     1 small chopped onion
     3 Tbs flour
     ½ cup grated cheese
     Dash of nutmeg, salt, pepper and basil

TOPPING
     1 cup sour cream

Cut together flour, butter and salt, and then add water to form a ball. Sauté spinach and onion in butter. Combine with all other filling ingredients. Spread into unbaked crust. Top with sour cream. Bake at 375° for 40-45 minutes.

Swiss Cheese Bread 21/325

Carrie & Bob

The Relation

Carrie Gassmann Burrows would be my first cousin, once removed. She lives in Illinois (but not Olney) with her husband Bob. Fun fact, according my dad, Carrie's younger sister, Judy, married Bob's younger brother, Dan. Talk about the end of Shakespearian comedy!

The Process

Hassel back?

I will be honest, apart from purchasing the ingredients I had very little to do with making this recipe. This delicious bread will conclude the dish nightmare that was having my group of College Student Government Pals over. Which was not all that nightmarish except for the fact I didn’t prep like I should have. At this point, you’re probably wondering if I ever prep properly. The answer is no.

Alright, back to the bread. I did a little bit of hunting for the “soft crust French bread” called for in the ingredients. When I think of French bread, I usually imagine a crispy baguette, as oppose to anything soft. I found what appeared to be a soft crusted loaf of French bread in the bakery of my local smiths (they should sponsor me at this point, I swear). The label didn’t say “soft crust” but I poked it a little and it seemed okay.

Cheese on Cheese on CHEESE

Once I had the ingredients, all credit goes to College Pal Josh (and maybe also Armon). Josh took this assignment and ran with it. As I read the bread slicing instructions to him, he said “right, so a Hassel back?” To which I responded, “a what??” Well, folks, it turns out that Hassel backing your bread means you slice it almost all the way through to the bottom. That way all the slices stay attached to the bottom of the bread for the eaters to pull off themselves.

I bought blocks of swiss cheese (as the recipe calls for despite later requesting them to be sliced) so my sous chefs worked on slicing the blocks very thin. They definitely ended up using a few broken slices in between each slice of bread. They did use the entirety of the block, so I knew this was gonna be cheesy.

We had some creative interpretations of the foiling. Josh put his loaf in a little cocoon of its own while Armon built a cage around the entire pan.

Armon's (top)& Josh's (bottom)

The Feedback

Josh will say his loaf was better, but I think they both were spectacular. Fair warning, this is not a dish for the faint of heart. Seriously, it’s so buttery and carb-loaded, you might start worrying for your heart. Totally worth it though. I really liked the poppy seeds as an add-in. It made for some extra texture on top of giving the bread some aesthetic depth. I’m not sure if that’s a real thing or not, but today it is.

The Receipt

SWISS CHEESE BREAD - CC90
Carrie Gassmann Burrows

½ cup melted margarine
2 Tbs minced onion
1 Tbs Dijon or Dutch mustard
2 tps lemon juice
1 Tbs poppy seeds
½ tps Laury’s Seasoning Salt
1 block Swiss cheese
1 loaf soft crust French bread

Combine all ingredients but cheese and bread. Slice bread diagonally and put a thin slice of cheese between each slice. Place on foil and pour butter mixture over top. Bring up sides of foil but do not cover top. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.