Tag Archives: Harriette Anderson Kaser

Mother’s Favorite Dish: Johnny Marzetti

One day when my sister and I were talking about foods we recalled from childhood, she  mentioned  Johnny Marzetti. The hearty, easy (and cheap) casserole dish was indeed a favorite of our mother, and we still make it in our households.

Harriette Anderson Kaser

Harriette Anderson and Ray Jarvis at Ohio State, 1923

I suspected that it might have originated at Marzetti’s restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, and like to think that mother first picked up her liking for the dish when she went to Ohio State. Maybe her boyfriend Ray even took her to Marzetti’s for dinner, who knows?

But until I did a little research, I did not realize what a thoroughly Ohio recipe Johnny Marzetti is.

I would tell you the history, but this website, Ohio Thoughts, does such a good job that I urge you to follow the link for the story, pictures, the original recipe and the author’s variation.

 

 

Just in case you’re too fatigued to click over to that site (that’s sarcasm, in case you missed it), here’s the abbreviated version.  I remember mother adding chopped green peppers. I add garlic salt and Italian herbs.

Johnny Marzetti

Johnny Marzetti

Johnny Marzetti made with bowtie pasta and baby eggplant.

  • Cook macaroni or noodles.
  • In skillet, brown hamburger with onions (if you want them), mushrooms (if you have them) and when they are brown add tomato sauce and any seasonings you want.
  • Dump all that on top of the noodles in a casserole dish and top with grated cheddar cheese.  Bake

Thanks, Mom.

Molasses Apple Upside Down Cake

An Apple Molasses Upside-Down Cake with a little help from Harriette and Betty

I started the day in a frugal mood.  A bowl of apples shoved to the back of the refrigerator, were threatening to wither and turn brown.  Oh no! My grandmothers and great-grandmothers would not stand for that!

Remembering that incredible butter and molasses spread I had discovered along with this recipe for pumpkin/cornmeal bread, I cored and sliced the apples and threw them in a skillet with butter.  When they were nicely browned, I drizzled them with molasses.

Apples and molasses

The apple slices browned in butter and molasses

But what do do next?  Maybe put them over a cake? It was time to pull out one of those vintage product cookbooks from my shelf.  This one–Betty Crocker’s Cake and Frosting Mix Cookbook (1966)–seemed perfect.  Betty always has a suggestion, and this book takes you from the basics of baking (with a mix of course) to some fancy decorating.But everything in the book seems doable for the ordinary person.

I love how the illustrations show imperfect decorations.  See the dribble on that little petit four in the foreground?  It makes the reader feel that they could do this do.  Maybe our expectations in the 1960s were a bit tamer than today?  Unless you count the expectation that we would polish silver and actually have a tea party with several kinds of cake.

But back to the recipe search–as I thumbed through the book, I saw several pages of upside-down cake recipes, including an apple upside-down cake. Ah-ha!

One of my mother’s go-to desserts that we all loved, was pineapple upside-down cake. How I loved that gooey syrupy top that surrounded the pineapples and maraschino cherries that Harriette Kaser baked on the bottom of an iron skillet, until it was carefully turned upside down in all its glory.

The Betty Crocker Cake Book suggests using one jar of cinnamon apple rings, drained, instead of pineapple slices in their basic pineapple upside-down cake recipe.  Pour 1/4 cup of butter (1/2 stick),  into the cake pan and top with brown sugar and  the pineapple slices and cherries.

Betty Crocker cake mix

Betty Crocker cake mix and recipe for Upside-Down cake

I already had a skillet with apples browned in butter an molasses (instead of brown sugar).  All I had to do was arrange them, mix up the Betty Crocker© spice cake mix and pour it over the top.

 upside-down cake apples

Cooked apples arranged for upside-down cake.

The book suggests using one-half of the prepared mix. Because my skillet was a little larger than a regular 9″ cake pan, I used a bit more than half. ( I made the remainder of the batter into cupcakes, to freeze for later.)

The cake needs to bake at 325 degrees (since the pan is dark), and took about 45 minutes.

With upside down cakes, you must invert them on the serving plate immediately when they come out of the oven.  With a cake pan, that is fairly easy, but with a heavy iron skillet and a heavy platter, it is a challenge.  As you see, it didn’t break up and fall apart (whew!), even though I did not get the cake centered on the platter. Imperfect. Just like a real cook.

Apple Upside-Down Cake

Apple Upside-Down Cake

The only remaining challenge is letting it cool before I can dig into that molasses-buttery goodness.

Apple Molasses Upside-Down Cake

Serves 10-12
Prep time 20 minutes
Cook time 1 hour, 10 minutes
Total time 1 hour, 30 minutes
Allergy Egg, Wheat
Meal type Dessert
Misc Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup Butter
  • 3 tablespoons Molasses
  • 5 Small apples (cored and sliced)
  • 1 box Spice cake mix

Directions

1. Melt butter in iron skillet
2. Stir in sliced apples. Cook until soft (about 20 minutes), stirring occasionally.
3. Drizzle molasses over and stir to coat apples. Arrange apples in an attractive pattern in pan.
4. Mix cake mix according to directions on package
5. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the skillet on top of the apples.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. (Or bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees if using a 9" round cake pan)
7. When you take skillet (or pan) out of oven, immediately invert onto serving platter. Leave skillet on top of cake for about ten minutes. Lift off and let cake cool on platter.
8. Serve plain or with whipped cream.

Note

You can use the remainder of the cake batter to make a one-layer cake or 9-12 cupcakes, following baking directions on cake mix box.

If you do not care for spice cake, substitute another flavor of cake mix.

Used copies of Betty Crocker’s Cake and Frosting Mix Cookbook are available at Amazon.com. If you purchase through this link, you are supporting AncestorsinAprons.com and helping with my research. Even though it costs you no more, I make a few cents on each sale through my links. THANKS!

#52 Ancestors: 52: St. Nicholas–Santa Claus Is on Fire

Christmas-LightsYou don’t believe that St. Nicholas is an ancestor?  Well, having been at this Family History thing for a couple of years now, I know all about documentation, and I have my detailed proof right here–somewhere–buried in the Christmas wrapping paper, or hidden under a pile of Christmas cards, no doubt. But I don’t have time to look for it, since I have a story to tell, and it IS Christmas Eve, after all.

By the way, I make no claims to be related to the flesh and blood man who was playing Santa Claus in this story. But the stories of interesting characters and odd goings on in a small town are part and parcel of my family legacy.

Santa Claus

This COULD be the Santa in the story–but it is not. It is a photo from Flickr.com, by Elido Turco, used with Creative Commons license.

At any rate, since it is time to wind up a year of 52 Ancestors, the diabolical challenge fielded by the No Story Too Small website, I wanted to pass on a Christmas story told by my Mother and Father (Harriette Anderson Kaser and Paul Kaser) about Santa Claus in Killbuck, Ohio. (My cousin Herbert Anderson confirms that the story is absolutely true.) So my 52nd Ancestor story for the year is about St. Nicholas. (You can flip back through all the 52 ancestors stories by following this link).

Harriette and Paul Kaser

Harriette and Paul Kaser 1981

Here is a slightly edited transcript of a conversation with my mother and father, originally recorded and transcribed by my brother, Paul William Kaser around 1980.

Harriette:  Oh, we had a character in this little town [Killbuck, Ohio] we talk about.  Well, there was a man there that lived all by himself and he was about the dirtiest person as anyone ever [saw].  As far as the house he lived in, it was filthy dirty, but he really always wanted to do something for somebody.  At Christmas time he always made popcorn balls for all the kids in this little town.  And he dressed up like Santy Claus, and he went from door to door delivering popcorn balls.

Well, it happened that my brother [Herbert Anderson] and his children were up at our house on Christmas Eve, at my Mother and Father’s home before I was married and I was home too, and in comes this G. with his big basket of popcorn and starts passing it out.  Of course the kids are grabbing.  We had a terrible time keeping them from eating it. and finally because we didn’t want to hurt G.’s feelings, we said we were going to wrap it up and put it on the tree, and that way they could get it the next morning when they got their gifts.

Cousin Herb (the son of Harriette’s brother Herb) was a young boy and he remembered that G. was in a Santa Claus suit, and thought that Daddy Guy, our grandfather, had arranged for him to visit with gifts.  But everyone remembers the dirty popcorn balls.

Harriette tells another story.

He had a habit, [besides] being very, very dirty, of sometimes getting pretty well oiled. [drunk]  And he had this white beard on him [playing Santa Claus] and he went to light a cigarette and the beard took flame and he ended up in the doctor’s office.  He had a pretty badly burnt face.  Well we all felt sorry about that because he was trying to be a nice Santa Claus.

Paul William: How did he dress when he dressed to be Santa Claus?

Paul: Oh, he had a red suit on.

Harriette: Oh, yeah, he had a regular Santa Claus suit.  He spent money like mad when he had it.  He used to always go to Indianapolis to the races, and he had money.  They had oil up on their farm, and he had money to spend.

Now, I’ll wager you never heard about a Santa Claus like that one, did you? For another story about popcorn and popcorn balls and a recipe, click here.

Merry Christmas from me and all the Ancestors. And town characters.