These came from a cookbook published for Jennie Nord Solmonson’s 95th birthday by daughter Arlys Osmun
When Jennie was a little girl, the family was invited to Uncle John and Aunt Alma Skoog’s for dinner. Aunt Alma served sliced bananas in a bowl. Jennie had never had bananas before and wasn’t so sure about the taste of them. She cautiously tried a little, and she decided that she didn’t like them! What could she do with these bananas that she surely was NOT going to eat! So — she carefully arranged them under the sauce dish where they would never be discovered, she was sure!
Jennie’s Banana Bread
(which surely must be the best in the world)!
3/4 cup margarine or butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cup mashed bananas
Cream butter and sugar; add beaten eggs. Sift together the flour, salt and soda. Add to mixture alternately with buttermilk. Add mashed bananas. (It’s better with nuts)!
Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours at 360 degrees.
Aunt Alice Solmonson Peterson Swedish Meatballs (Good)!
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb lean ground pork
1/2 lb veal
onion no onion (That’s what it says, I swear)!
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Gravy
1/4 cup hot fat
1/4 cup flour
2 cups water
3/4 cup sweet cream or sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
Aunt Alice’s Hard Tack 1/66
4 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups bran flakes
Blend in 1 cup Crisco. Add 2 cups buttermilk. Knead dough, roll thin and bake on cookie sheet till golden brown. Temp? 350 6 minutes about!
Besides her rice pudding, Jennie was almost (or more famous) for her doughnuts. I didn’t find a hand-written recipe for doughnuts, but I did find this Betty Crocker recipe that comes pretty close, I think!
Potato Doughnuts
3 Tbsp shortening
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup freshly boiled and mashed potatoes (packed)
2 3/4 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup milk
Cream shortening and add sugar gradually. Blend in well-beaten eggs. Blend in mashed potatoes. Sift flour once, then sift with baking powder, salt and nutmeg together and add to creamed mixture alternately with the milk.
Turn dough onto floured cloth covered board, and fold over 2 or 3 times to smooth up. Roll out to 1/4″ thick. Cut with doughnut cutter.
Drop circles as many doughnuts at a time as can be turned easily. As soon as the doughnuts rise to the surface, turn immediately. Then turn again as soon as the bottom becomes brown. Lift from fat when completely brown – about 3 minutes. Use a long-tined fork and handle carefully so as not to prick doughnuts. Drain over kettle before placing doughnuts on brown absorbent paper in a warm place to drain thoroughly.
(Ha! That’s a joke! Who can wait long enough drain thoroughly)?
When Jeff Johnson (Yvonne’s son) was little and came downstairs to witness his Grandma Alma and Jennie frying doughnuts, he exclaimed, “Ish! Who wants wet doughnuts?” Yvonne, his mother, says that he quickly found out special they were!
Jennie and her husband Victor Solmonson were married May 28, 1922. Vic was an agent at the LaBolt, South Dakota train depot.
Jennie told a funny story about when Vic was going to teach her to drive. This was during their “courting days”, I am sure that Vic showed infinite patience with Jennie. Confident that she could learn to drive, he BORROWED a car. Anyway, all when smoothly until they came to an intersection. A man driving a tractor with a hayrack behind was just entering the intersection. Vic shouted to Jennie to “STOP!”, but unfortunately, Jennie hadn’t learned that yet. She proceeded to go right between the tractor and the hayrack (Don’t ask me how!) and landed in the ditch! Fortunately, neither was hurt, but the car was damaged somewhat.
I suppose that rather than face the wrath of the owner, and partly because of the humiliation of it all, Vic BOUGTH the car. That was, my friends, the end of the driving lessons!
I don’t know what they served at the wedding reception (maybe they didn’t have a formal reception)! I am sure there was plenty of food for the guests. Maybe they served this Angel Custard Dessert.
Angel Custard Dessert
6 beaten egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 Tbsp unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup water
6 stiff beaten egg whites
3/4 cups sugar
1 large angel food cake
Make custard of egg yolks, sugar, lemon and lemon rind. Cook over hot, not boiling water until mixture coats a spoon. Remove from heat: add gelatin which have been softened in cold water. Fold in egg whites which has been beaten with remaining 3/4 cup sugar. Tear angel food cake in bite-sized pieces. Place angel food pieces in cake pan. Pour custard over cake. Chill. Serve with whipped cream.
They celebrated their Golden Anniversary at Faith Lutheran Church in Spicer, Minnesota, June 1972. A host of relatives and friends came to enjoy the day.
Betty Crocker’s Sunshine Cake
5 egg yolks
2 Tbsp water
8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp flavoring (vanilla? almond?)
Beat egg yolks with water till lemon-colored. Add 1/2 cup sugar. Beat egg whites till frothy, then add cream of tartar and salt. Beat until it holds up in peaks. Fold in 1 cup sugar, then add to egg yolk mixture. Fold in flour which has been sifted 8 (!!!!) times.
This recipe does not say how long to bake or at what temperature. And what do you do with the other 3 egg yolks? I DON’T know)!
(Sometimes this was our main dish, served with butter and syrup and bacon or sausage).
Johnny Cake
1 large Tbsp butter
2 level Tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 cup sour milk
1/2 tsp soda
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
Beat butter, sugar and egg together, then add sour milk with soda dissolved in it. Then, add flour and corn meal. Pour into hot, greased pan and bake quickly!
(Now, this is what the recipe says. If you can determine “quickly”, and for how long to bake, you will have a pretty good johnny cake.
Another family favorite was Apple Crisp. This is Jennie’s recipe.
Apple Crisp
Mix a LOT of apple with a little sugar and cinnamon. Haralson’s are best! Put in a 9×9 pan. Mix:
1 stick of butter or margarine
1 cup flour
little salt
1/2 cup sugar
Put on top of apples and bake 350 for 35-40 minutes
When Dave (Arlys’ brother) and I were growing up (well, I was a LOT more grown up up than he was), we went to Ladies Aid every month for supper. The ladies invariably served a “hot dish” called goulash. Dave got so sick of eating this hot dish, that he finally said, “No More!” I doubt whether he will eat this particular hot dish even today!
What do you say, Dave? Would you eat the Hungarian Goulash today? (Richard’s (Arlys husband) dad would have called it “booyah”)!
Dave says: “I doubt whether any recipe is good enough to make me eat that goulash! I’m with Richard’s dad! It’s BOOYAH!”
I didn’t find a recipe for the goulash that the Kerkhoven ladies made, but this is close. It’s “Mrs. Engve’s (Nord) recipe as written by Jennie.
Chop Suey
1 lb hamburger
Brown that in the frying pan. Cut up 2 quite large onions. 1 bunch of celery cut up; put in with the meat.
1 qt tomatoes
1 Tbsp molasses
small can of drained mushrooms
1 skt (?) pkt (?) cooked egg noodles
(I don’t know! Your guess is as good as mine)!
Bake till the celery is done.
Mrs. E. O.’s Pie Crust
1 1/2 cup sifted flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup lard
5 Tbsp ice water
Makes a double crust
Vi Morency, RIchard’s sister, used to spend her summer vacations with us in Spicer. Every summer, Vi would request “Jennie’s Pancakes” for breakfast. I didn’t have the recipe, and so I called Mother to get it. The next summer, Vi asked for pancakes again. Do you suppose that I could find the recipe? No, of course not! So, again, I called Mother for the recipe. Believe it or not, this happened a THIRD time! And again, I called Mother for the recipe.
One day, I was looking through my recipes and lo and behold, I found THREE recipes for pancakes! THEY WERE ALL DIFFERENT!
Recipe No 1
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
salt
sugar
3 Tbsp butter or drippings
Recipe No 2
2 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
3 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp oil or bacon fat
Recipe No 3
3 egg yolks
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup buttermilk
Beat egg yolks and add buttermilk. Add sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the oil and lastly fold in the beaten egg whites. Very hot griddle.
Friends & Cousins shared their recipes also.
Clarice’s Cookies
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups oatmeal (fine)
(There are no directions! Use your heads when it comes to mixing the dough! Chill. Make little balls. Roll in powdered sugar. Flatten with a glass. Put whole pecans in center, if desired. 350? 10 min. Ask Clarice!
Clarice’s Brown Rolled Cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup dark syrup
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
Boil together 5 minutes. Let cool. Add 2 eggs lightly beaten, 2 tsp soda dissolved in 1 Tbsp hot water. Add enough flour to make a very stiff dough (about 4 cups).
(That’s the end of the directions)! Ask Clarice!
Hannah Thorvig’s Hard Tack
-Arlys thinks this recipe is the one that Jennie used. She might have modified it!
1/2 cup melted butter or shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp soda
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups bran flakes
5 cups flour (or more)
Roll thin, little pieces at a time. Bake in not too hot oven. 350?
Hannah Thorvig’s Almond Sticks (10/8/69)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1 egg
Mix together the flour, butter, sugar and almond flavoring. Divide the dough into 8 long rows the size of your finger. Put close together on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with the beaten egg. Sprinkle sugar and slivered almonds over dough. Cut the size you like. Bake about 15 minutes at 350F.
Hannah’s Strawberry Rice Salad
Cook 1/3 cup rice.
Dissolve one pkg strawberry jello in 1 cup hot water. Add juice from one #2 can of crushed pineapple and juice from 1 jar of maraschino cherries. Add enough water to make one cup. Cool. Beat until fluffy; add 1/2 cup drained maraschino cherries and drained crushed pineapple. Whip 1 cup cream; fold in mixture and refrigerate.
*Hannah, a very dear neighbor, entertained friends on her birthday and served this. Jennies comment: very good, and thanks!
Jennie’s signature dish was, of course, her rice pudding! I I have tried and tried (and tried to fool the family by saying that it was Grandmas, but they laughed in my face)! I hope that you have better luck!
This is Jennie’s Rice Pudding until it appears in the Minneota cookbook:
Rice Pudding
1/2 cup slow-cooking rice (washed) in double boiler with 1 quart milk. Cook for 1 hour or until soft. Stir occasionally. A dash of cardamon and nutmeg, 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 cup sugar. Beat 4 to 5 eggs and add sugar. Pour the hot rice into the eggs and sugar mixture. Put in casserole and set in pan of water and bake in slow oven about 1 hour. Top with sugar and cinnamon.
-Mrs. V. E. Solmonson, Spicer, Minnesota
Everyone loved Jenni’s rice pudding, but none more than Sam! I think that Sam’s first word was “wicepudding” (said a one word)! Sam, not yet two, recognized the casserole dish that Jennie used for the rice pudding, and upon seeing it (empty or full), would shout “WICEPUDDING”! (said as one word.) Alas, I cannot continue the traditionof having rice pudding. I have not mastered the art of making it, and I can no longer pass it on as “Gweat-Gwandma’s”!
Well, you thought that you had the recipe for Jennie’s rice pudding, didn’t you? You are wrong, kemo sabe, here is the REAL recipe (I THINK!)
Jennie’s Rice Pudding
Boil 2 cups salted water. Add 1/2 cup rice. Cook 15 minutes. Add 4 cups milk and 1 cup evaporated milk. Add 1/2 cup sugar. Mash 3 seeds of cardamom or 1/4 tsp ground cardamom or 1/4 tsp ground, nutmeg, vanilla. Beat 4 or 5 eggs. When milk is boiling, add eggs. Stir vigorously. Butter the casserole and pour in above mixture. Place in a pan of hot or boiling water. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Preheat oven to 300F. Turn off oven. Put pudding in oven and leave it for 20 minutes.
It occurs to me that Jennie had a lot of recipes for desserts. So do I! What does that tell you?
Rhubarb Torte
Crust : 1 cup flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup butter
Mix and pat in 8″ pan.
Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.
2 1/4 cup rhubarb
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup cream
2 Tbsp flour
Mix and pour over crust. Bake 350 for 45 minutes.
Jennie would always make Swedish potato sausage around Christmas. It, plus lutefisk, was a staple for Christmas… Sometimes the process didn’t go so well. One time I was at Jennie’s all prepared to learn how to make this specialty. Jennie, when all ingredients were in the mixture, would fry a little piece to see whether it was “just right”! I raved about it and pronounced it “perfect”. Jennie wasn’t so sure but we put it in the casings (using an upside-down angel food pan.) The next day I came over to Jennie’s house only to find her taking it OUT OF THE CASINGS and adding some unknown spice to make it “Right”!
Potato Sausage 12/23/88
Cost $3.28
2 lbs good beef
1 lb good pork
5 lbs potatoes, ground med. blade
2 ls large onions
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp allspice
1 Tbsp Morton’s sausage
1 Tbsp Old Plantation sauce seasoning
1 Tbsp Accent (MSG)
2 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt & pepper
Now, here’s where the proof is in pudding, er, sausage. Here’s what Jennie says: “Better test. I took some in a little casing, put a little salt in water and cooked for 25 minutes or so. If frozen count after boiling–med high.”
Memo: When you finish making sausage and want to freeze it, do NOT put it outside! Jennie did one year, at the neighbor’s dog proceeded to have a FEAST! (I think that he probably go sick!) So was Jennie!
Hey, I just found another recipe for Rice Pudding. This one comes with a “critique”. Jennie says: “I took this to Jo Thompson’s. Arlys said that it was ‘perfect’. They all liked it!”
Baked Rice 1/2/89
1/3 cup rice
2 cups water or more with salt,
Cook rice, low heat about 25 minutes. Test. Add 3 1/2 cup milk, 1 can evaporated milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Beat 4 eggs and put in 1 1/2 quart casserole which you have set in a pan of hot water. Pour hot rice over eggs and beat with an egg beater until thick. Bake 325 degrees or 300 for 2 or more hours.
Green Tomato Pie
4 cups green tomatoes, sliced
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
5 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
1 double pie crust, unbaked
Mix dry ingredients together. Add vinegar or lemon juice to sliced tomatoes and combine with dry ingredients. Stir well to blend. Put into crust, dot with butter, top with other crust. Cut slits in top crust and sprinkle with additional cinnamon and sugar, Bake in 400 degree oven 15 min. 350 for 45.
We celebrated Gladys Thompson’s birthday when we were in Texas for Garry and LeAnn’s wedding. We ate half the cake before we even thought of taking a picture!
Here’s Gladys’ excellent Pecan Pie Recipe
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Put 2 Tbsp milk in a small bowl and add 1/2 cup oil. Beat. Add to flour mixture and put in pie pan. Bake at 375 till done.
Filling:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 Tbsp cornstarch
Cook these filling items until it bubbles.
Add 3 Tbsp peach jello. Cool. Put 4 cups sliced peaches in crust. Add the filling. Serve with whipped cream.
Here’s a rather interesting salad recipe from Aunt Myrt. Mother wrote on the back that Mryt served it on February 13, 1949, and commented “good.” The fruit salad dressing recipe is for another salad, obviously!
Salad from Aunt Myrt
3 bananas
3 fresh crisp carrots
1/4 cup salted peanuts without skins
Miracle Whip enough catsup to make it pink
Fruit Salad Dressing
1 cup pineapple juice
Juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp flour
3/4 cups sugar
2 whole eggs
Emilia’s good recipe 1975
Raw Apple Cookies
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup raisins, chopped
1 cup nuts, chopped
1 cup raw apple
Bake at 10-12 for 350
Alma Nord Lundberg’s Grape Pie
4 cups Concord grapes
Cook and put through a sieve
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Put all together and bake in two crusts or lattice top.
Alma’s Strawberry Pie
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp strawberry jello
Mix cornstarch & sugar. Cook water with cornstarch & sugar mixture till thick and clear. Add the jello. Cool slightly. Pour over strawberries in a baked pie crust.
Vera’s Rhubarb Upside down Cake 8/7/88
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
4 cups finely cut rhubarb
Toss buttermilk, sugar, nutmeg and rhubarb together to coat rhubarb. Spread in a 9″ pan. Prepare cake mix according to directions (doesn’t say what kind — ask Vera)! Put on top of rhubarb. Bake 35-40 minutes in a 350 oven. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Top with whipped cream or ice cream. Good!
Vera’s Sugar Cookies (Good)
1/2 cup Crisco & 1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
2 cups flour (little more)
No directions! Ask Vera!
When I was young we lived with Grandpa Hedman in LaBolt, South Dakota. He only spoke Swedish. So did I!
I don’t think he would have been so excited to have us stay there if he had known that I would lock him in the outside toilet when I was two! He said in Swedish, of course, that I should have a licking!
Jennie finally got a new house in the 40’s. After living in rented houses in Kerkhoven, Minnesota, she was thrilled to have a new house! The anguish that she felt when Vic bid on and got the depot agent’s job in Spicer, is recorded in, of all things, a “Guest Book”:
“Kenneth Peterson and Audrey Egerstrom came over and bought our house $7500 — I signed the fatal document on June 6, (1947). This is a blow that all but killed Mother. Only the Lord knows that pain.”
What a heart-rending statement!
Living in Spicer wasn’t so great, what with living in rented houses again (even in the Zion Lutheran parsonage with the pastor and his family)! Finally Vic bought an old shack and built a house around it. Jennie once again had a home that she could call her own and lived there until her death in 1994.
An Example
Jennie Nord Solmonson is ninety and five,
This news won’t make the headlines nationwide.
But this date on the calendar, as this year ends,
Will be celebrated by many—her family and friends.
Jennie is the esteemed matriarch of this family.
She’s earned her honored place of this family tree,
Not by justly merely existing for early a century,
But by living as an example of God’s love for you and me.
Jennie never “toots her horn” nor boasts of things she’s done,
But quietly does what she can to encourage and help everyone.
She’s not a famous musician or artist or entrepreneur,
But she’s an example of God’s caring — who could ask for more?
Her preperation of food to share is a foretaste of the feast above,
Her concern for others is a reflection of God’s eternal love.
Finding talent in the ordinary and beauty in the plain,
She brings God’s healing sunshine to lives filled with pain.
As we celebrate this special birthday,
Let us give thanks to the good Lord above,
For letting us know, dear, sweet Jennie
an example of His conern and perfect love.
-Written by Agnes Nord Thompson, 1991
This book began as “Jennie’s Recipes,” but it soon evolved into more stories that recipes, which is ok, I think.
Jennie was, as her doctor often said, was a “remarkable woman.” We all can say, “Amen” to that, I’m sure.
Anyway, the longer I worked on this book, the more I was convinced that I couldn’t do just a short little booklet to do justice to Jennie’s live and her love for her family, her friends and most importantly, her God.
Her strong faith shows through in her life, her prayers (that’s another book), and the copious Bible verses that she not only underlined, but memorized. Her memory was phenomenal, as you know. (When I wanted to know when someone’s birthday was, I could always ask Jennie and she would know)!
Here then, is a small portion of Jennie’s life. I hope that it will trigger some memory of her, and you, along with me, will recall the strength, love, and spirit of Jennie. Blessed be her memory.
Arlys
Church Lady Recipes 