All recipes

Old-fashioned fried potatoes and onions in a cast iron skillet: potatoes sliced thin and dried on a towel, cooked under a lid for the first 8 to 10 minutes, then uncovered and left alone to brown, turned once, with the onions added for the last 10 minutes.

The classic three-layer German chocolate cake with the coconut pecan frosting cooked in a saucepan from egg yolks, evaporated milk, butter and sugar, stirred about 12 minutes until thick and caramel colored, spread between the layers and on top only, with the sides bare.

The famous impossible coconut pie: milk, eggs, sugar, melted butter, vanilla, sweetened flaked coconut and half a cup of baking mix whirled in a blender, poured into a greased 9 inch pie plate with no crust, and baked at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes until it separates into a crust, a custard and a toasted coconut top.

Old-fashioned lazy daisy oatmeal cake: quick oats soaked in boiling water, a soft brown sugar and cinnamon cake in a 9 by 13 inch pan, then a topping of butter, brown sugar, evaporated milk, coconut and pecans spread on the hot cake and broiled until it bubbles. Cups and grams, oven time and broiler time.

The old-fashioned Mississippi mud cake: a chocolate pecan sheet cake in a 9 by 13 pan, miniature marshmallows melted on the hot cake for 2 to 3 minutes in the oven, then a warm cocoa icing poured over the whole thing. Cups and grams.

The Depression-era oatmeal pie: quick oats, brown sugar, light corn syrup, eggs, melted butter and vanilla baked in an unbaked 9 inch crust at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes. It cuts and tastes like pecan pie with no pecans in it. Cups and grams.

Old-fashioned beef stew for the night of the first frost: chuck cut in big pieces, salted, tossed in flour and browned hard in batches, simmered with onion, garlic, tomato paste, broth, bay leaf and thyme with the lid cracked for an hour and a half, carrots and potatoes in for the last 45 minutes. Cups and grams, and the times.

Tall old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits with sides you can peel into layers: frozen butter grated on a box grater, cold buttermilk, the dough folded like a letter four times, cut straight down without twisting, and baked touching in a cast iron skillet at 450°F. Cups and grams.

Plain old-fashioned mashed potatoes done right: russets in salted water, drained and dried in the hot pot, mashed by hand with butter first and then hot milk a little at a time. Why cold milk and an electric mixer turn them to glue.

Skillet fried chicken the paper bag way: pieces dipped in milk beaten with an egg, shaken in a brown paper grocery bag with seasoned flour, and fried in cast iron with the lid on for the first side and off for the second.

Old-fashioned pinto bean pie: a cup of cooked pinto beans mashed smooth, beaten with sugar, brown sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla, baked in a 9-inch crust at 350°F until the top crackles. It looks, slices and tastes like pecan pie, with no pecans in it. Cups and grams.

Old-fashioned porcupine meatballs: ground beef mixed with uncooked long grain rice, onion and egg, simmered under a lid in one can of condensed tomato soup thinned with water until the rice swells and pokes out like quills. Served over mashed potatoes. Cups and grams.