Thomas Jefferson’s Recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream

Manuscript from the Library of Congress. Transcript available at Biblioklept.

Spaghetti Casserole for 30

2 pkgs spaghetti
1 qt milk
1 1/2 - 2 lb sliced American cheese
2 large green peppers
1/2 stalk celery, minced
1 4 oz. bottle pimento olives
1 #2 can mushrooms
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 lb butter or margarine
Salt & pepper to taste

Boil spaghetti and blanche. Saute pepper, onion and celery in butter. Combine soup, milk, and part of cheese and cook in double boiler to make sauce. Mix with vegetables and pour over spaghetti. Mix well. Add olives and mushrooms. Place in casseroles. Cover with thin slices of cheese. Bake 30 min. in a slow oven.

New Recipe Box: Gladys McDowell's Date Nut Jumbles

I bought an entire recipe box recently. I have been diving in and trying to find something personal about the previous owner. (So far, all I've found is a game score sheet for four.) But I'm starting off with these Date Nut Jumbles by Gladys McDowell because my grandmother made these every Christmas. I never got the recipe and I've always wondered how to make it. And as soon as I read the card, I knew this was it!



1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
7 tbsp water
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3 1/2 cups flour
1 lb. dates
1 cup pecans
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Mix dry ingredients and add alternately with water. Add extract. Lightly flour chopped dates and nuts and add last. Mix well and drop from teaspoon on cookie sheet (greased). Bake at 325 degrees until firm and brown.

Turn your handwritten recipes into a tea towel

When Emma Jeffery’s grandmother passed away she found three scraps of old notepaper containing handwritten recipes. They were the only examples of her grandmother’s writing that survived - and she came up with the neat idea of printing them on tea towels.

And, luckily for us, she decided to share how she did it here.