Little Black Book

My unassuming little black book is filled with delectable and luscious information...things that I will never forget and don't want to forget,  some tasteful and some spicy memories, goodies that people beg for. 

It's my handwritten recipe book where I copied recipes from my mom's little black book, wrote down recipes from my mother-in-law's collection, got recipes from friends or from a magazine that was in a waiting room. It sits on a shelf with other recipe books, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Yotam Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, and lots of other cookbooks collected over the years.

For Mother's Day, hubs, first child and I went to FIndlay to visit my in-laws. Mother's Day is one of those days where restaurants are busy all day long and waits can be horrendous, especially if you don't have a reservation because this was a last minute trip. I wanted to make an egg casserole and a coffee cake in advance so we could have a nice, leisurely meal at my in-laws' house, sitting around the table and chatting as long as we wanted.

Nowadays it's so easy to hop on the computer, type in what you want to make and voila!...thousands of recipes pop up. I searched for a coffee cake recipe and the perfect Mother's Day coffee cake was no where to be found in cyber-space. And then a bolt out of the blue hit me. My mother-in-law used to make a danish at Christmas. The recipe made two buttery, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth pastries that are frosted with a powdered sugar icing. And I knew exactly where that recipe was...in my little black book.

Danish 

(recipe shared as exactly in the little black book. Where the directions say to use margarine and oleo, I substituted butter)

Cut 1 stick of margarine into 1 c. flour. Add 2 T. water. Mix into ball. Divide and spread dough on ungreased cookie sheet into 2 long strips.

Mix 1 stick margarine & 1 c. water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat & add 1 t. vanilla or almond extract. Add 1 c. sifted flour immediately. Beat in 3 eggs, 1 at a time. Beat until smooth & spread on dough. Bake at 350, 50-60 min. until raised and golden brown. Frost while warm.

Frosting

2 c. powdered sugar

2 T. milk

4 T. oleo

1 c. vanilla