Betty Ann Barr Boilesen
Recipes
and Special Treats
Lemonade, Ice Cream, Carrot
Cake and Cherry Mash
Betty Ann's mother baked pies,
cookies, cakes and cinnamon rolls in their wood burning oven
but, in addition to the Christmas
cookies, there were four special treats that seemed to stand
out in my mom's childhood.
The first was how special for
her it was to drink lemonade with ice. Lemonade would
be served at picnics or at lunch for the threshing crew or other
family gatherings. In other words using ice for drinks wasn't
a daily activity. There was no refrigerator on their farm until
1934 and no home ice delivery service. (4)
On the farm using ice in the summer was dependant on what ice
was still left in the ice house.
The ice house on their farm was
a shed where blocks of ice would be layered in straw and covered
with tarps. When the North Loup river froze the ice would be
cut in blocks and then be transported to their ice house with
a horse drawn sled or wagon. I don't have a picture of my grandfather
doing this or of their ice house but a period postcard shows
a typical Nebraska scene of transporting and storing wintertime
ice.
Another favorite use of ice was
to make ice cream. Fresh cream, milk, eggs, sugar and
vanilla churned in a hand-cranked ice-cream maker that was filled
with ice and rock salt to freeze the mix would have been a special
dessert for a hot summer day. (5)
Years later Mom still loved vanilla
ice cream and her children
and grandchildren likewise experienced making ice cream
and enjoying it it as soon as the paddles were pulled from the
canister of churned and frozen ice cream.
GEM Ice Cream Freezer
(6)
Two Ice Cream Recipes - Probably
originated with Betty's Mom in the 1920's, but definitely passed
down by Betty to the next generation because this is the recipe
copied by Sister Bev, circa 1980
Carrot cake was a special
dessert for Mom growing up and it became one of the cakes that
her own family years later could expect to enjoy in the rotation
of cakes served at birthdays or other special events like the
annual Phonograph Birthday party.
Carrot cake for 1991
celebration with Nipper and family
Betty's Carrot Cake Recipe
a.k.a. "Come on Roger. Let's go home. I'll
bake you a carrot cake." (Last scene of Roger Rabbit)
Sift:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
Add:
1 & 1/2 cups salad oil
Beat with dry ingredients
Beat in 4 eggs, one at a time
Add:
2 cups ground fresh carrots
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
1/2 tsp. salt
Grease and flour pan
Mix and bake at 350 degrees 45
- 60 minutes
Frosting
8 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese
1 stick butter
2 cups powdered sugar
Beat and add shredded coconaut
(up to 1 Cup) and chopped pecans (optional)
And finally, Chase's Cherry
Mash candy bar was said by Mom to be her favorite candy
bar and a treat to be enjoyed if she had a nickel for such a
luxury. I think Mom had a sweet tooth because she once joked
that when she was young she wished she had been named "Candy"
(i.e., Candy Barr).
Chase's Cherry Mash, first made
in 1918, was a popular candy bar in the 1920's. However, as
noted by Chase Candy Company, "the Depression years of
the 1930s hit the candy business especially hard. If you had
any money, you spent it on food for sustenance, not for your
sweet tooth. Chase Candy Company experienced a huge decrease
in sales and profits, and an extensive cutback in the number
of candies it produced. (7)
The original Cherry Mash was a
4-ounce mound of chopped roasted peanuts, blended with chocolate
coating over a smooth cherry fondant center ( a soft, cherry-flavored
center containing maraschino cherries).
(8)
1992
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