These are gorgeous, Jolene! I love the whole story and sweet photograph of you and your classmates 💓 A funny recipe came to mind just now - my granny Nancy’s chopped olive and walnut tea sandwiches, which I’d have with a cup of tea after school on Friday’s if I visited her. She had the most wonderful parties, always rolling a Chinese carpet out into the garden under her magnolia tree in Santa Barbara, so her friends’ heels didn’t sink in the grass. For “luncheons” she would blend half iced coffee with half (!) heavy cream and simple syrup. A delicious treat. On Sunday nights she made a “chicken pie” (never using the word pot for some reason), which had a dollop of yogurt and a squeeze of garden lemons in the gravy, and no vegetables. This was baked with only the top layer of pastry - the bottom pasty round was cooked separately on a cookie sheet to create a never-soggy bottom crust. She would then serve this de-constructed pie by placing a crispy triangle of crust on the plate, topping it with the filling and top layer, and separately passing vegetables in silver dishes, swimming in butter. Thank you for your story today which brought back a flood of memories ☺️❤️🙏🏻 X, Daphne
This is wonderful, Daphne! I love the memories of your grandmother making you treats — and that iced coffee sounds so good — along with the olive and walnut tea sandwiches. So funny, I read your post and shortly after was reading through a 1948 cookbook and saw a recipe for “Chicken Pie” with just a crust on top. (And no mention of ‘pot pie’) thank you for your lovely comment! ❤️
Thank you, Jolene! And isn't that funny - perhaps she had the same cookbook from 1948! I have many of hers now, so I should start searching :)) The books I love and remember her referring to most often would have to be "Cook My Darling Daughter", "Joy of Cooking", and Fannie Farmer. Also a little volume from 1926, "The Art of Cooking and Serving" by the food editor of McCall's, Sarah Field Splint (of course interspersed with Adel Davis' "Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit" to balance things out!). Thank you again and all the best to you, Daphne
This is a book by Dione Lucas (who I’m writing about in a few weeks) called The Cordon Bleu cookbook, published in 1948. How beautiful to have your grandmother’s cookbooks! 😊
Sep 9, 2022·edited Sep 9, 2022Liked by Jolene Handy
JOLENE! First, I was going to get all giddy at the perfect lunch box and how I also eschew-ed peanut butter....and jelly!....however, there is something even more (potentially!) endearing to share as I read on. I though to myself, I also went to an all-girls high school! on Long Island! in a historic convent! Yup, same since-closed ASJ ; )
Utterly delicious post, Jolene! I think I recognize you in that adorable little girl in the center front! I don’t think my mother made us many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as children either and I don’t remember liking them much. Leftover roast beef, salami or tuna was more likely--on the sliced seeded rye my family favored. Those homemade crackers look amazing, especially with the toppings. When (if!) we ever cool down on this coast, I’ll be giving those a try--perfect prep for holiday gatherings!
Ruth I’ve been thinking about you and Jeff every time I hear about the heatwave in California, hope you’re doing ok! Roast beef sandwich on seeded rye! YES! We always had seeded rye too. Hope things cool down soon! ❤️
What a fun post Jolene! I bring my lunch box to work everyday, it's a black insulated hand bag where I keep one or two tupperwares... very boring compared to yours!
Dear Jolene--I love all your posts, but I LOVED this one!!!! My mother often made Ritz crackers with soft boiled eggs. Ah, Ritz crackers! Sweet and salty! They bring back so many memories! Thank you for the recipe, the gorgeous photos. I so loved the photo of you as a little girl in your plaid Catholic School Girl uniform. You were adorable--and you still are! Love,
What memories have surfaced since reading this post! Happy memories of "sack lunches" and my Mom in the kitchen assembling them. I love the picture of you in your classroom, picked you out right away. Unlike you, I love peanut butter. I always have and peanut butter toast is one of my favorite snacks. I do want to make the crackers and hope I can present something as lovely as you have!
Yes! Brown paper bags. Mom wrote our names on them, and we were instructed to bring them home and re-use. Prior to the bags, we did have lunch boxes. I'm not sure when we switched to bags! I'm looking forward to the bread recipe on Friday. I buy English Muffin Bread at the grocery store. It's a thin bread, and it makes great toast. Had it this morning with--you guessed it!
Fun article. I myself never liked peanut butter as a kid. I do like as an adult. Love the simple canapés, in this world of tick tick food fad and charcuterie boards the simplicity of your crackers is soothing.
I love endive boats with any manner of stuffings as a canapé.
Lisa, I just added endive boats to my list, thank you! I’m finding out from this post that many of us didn't like it as kids. I’ll try again and see if I like it any better now! Thanks for your comment. ❤️
Oh my--so good to read this, see familiar plaid (!) and the pic of you in school. Your Momma, making special lunches for you, just warms my heart (As the recipient of many soggy PB and frowned banana slices, and a bruised apple... ugh.)
Hahaha! Always tea, Alison! And yeah, I think the soggy thing was part of the turn-off. btw, I was thinking about your egg nog the other day, the minute September hits, I think it’s the holidays! ❤️
Cream cheese and jelly on crackers!!!! WOW does that ever bring back memories. It was a snack my mom made often for us. Though I haven't had it in years! She also used to make me cream cheese and jelly sandwiches for lunch. One year I had a Raggedy Ann lunch box, another year it was Holly Hobby. I also wore a similar uniform at the school I attended in Brooklyn. Great post!
Cream cheese and jelly on crackers — still delicious! Omg, Lisa, Holly Hobby lunchboxes, I’ve seen tons of them on eBay! I was born in Brooklyn! Where did you go? (If you don’t mind sharing) Thanks so much for your comment! ❤️
The cracker recipe is great, thanks for sharing!! Good crackers are weirdly difficult to find here, so maybe I’ll just have to make my own 😊 also love that you were already a tea drinker as a kid...you’re a woman who knows what she likes!!
Sam they are so easy to make, no fancy equipment, I think you’ll love them. I was the oldest kid, always around the adults and apparently wouldn’t shut-up till they gave me what they were drinking, so I guess given the choice of coffee, tea or highballs, they opted to give me tea at age 3! 😂❤️
Jolene, this was completely delightful. (And look at how utterly ADORABLE you were!) I’ve long loved cream cheese and jam on crackers — maybe I will bust this out for dinner tonight 😉
Not sure I'll be making my own crackers anytime soon, but thanks for the time travel back to my own parish school plaid uniform-wearing metal lunch box carrying days. Yes, there were the Friday Frights when you might have had to forgo the bologna sandwich your Mom inadvertently packed. And yes, the thermos would sometimes break, leaving you with a thermos of broken glass and milk. But did those nuns know how to teach! and discipline! 50 in a classroom -- and everyone last one got educated!
These are gorgeous, Jolene! I love the whole story and sweet photograph of you and your classmates 💓 A funny recipe came to mind just now - my granny Nancy’s chopped olive and walnut tea sandwiches, which I’d have with a cup of tea after school on Friday’s if I visited her. She had the most wonderful parties, always rolling a Chinese carpet out into the garden under her magnolia tree in Santa Barbara, so her friends’ heels didn’t sink in the grass. For “luncheons” she would blend half iced coffee with half (!) heavy cream and simple syrup. A delicious treat. On Sunday nights she made a “chicken pie” (never using the word pot for some reason), which had a dollop of yogurt and a squeeze of garden lemons in the gravy, and no vegetables. This was baked with only the top layer of pastry - the bottom pasty round was cooked separately on a cookie sheet to create a never-soggy bottom crust. She would then serve this de-constructed pie by placing a crispy triangle of crust on the plate, topping it with the filling and top layer, and separately passing vegetables in silver dishes, swimming in butter. Thank you for your story today which brought back a flood of memories ☺️❤️🙏🏻 X, Daphne
This is wonderful, Daphne! I love the memories of your grandmother making you treats — and that iced coffee sounds so good — along with the olive and walnut tea sandwiches. So funny, I read your post and shortly after was reading through a 1948 cookbook and saw a recipe for “Chicken Pie” with just a crust on top. (And no mention of ‘pot pie’) thank you for your lovely comment! ❤️
Thank you, Jolene! And isn't that funny - perhaps she had the same cookbook from 1948! I have many of hers now, so I should start searching :)) The books I love and remember her referring to most often would have to be "Cook My Darling Daughter", "Joy of Cooking", and Fannie Farmer. Also a little volume from 1926, "The Art of Cooking and Serving" by the food editor of McCall's, Sarah Field Splint (of course interspersed with Adel Davis' "Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit" to balance things out!). Thank you again and all the best to you, Daphne
This is a book by Dione Lucas (who I’m writing about in a few weeks) called The Cordon Bleu cookbook, published in 1948. How beautiful to have your grandmother’s cookbooks! 😊
I am so lucky to have them, Jolene 🙏🏻 I’ll have to see if the Dione Lucas book is here. And I look forward to that post!
Speaking of crackers do you remember a recipe for saltines that included soaking them in ice water then baking them on a buttered cookie sheet? Thanks
No! I have to investigate, Denise!
I want a bite of all those canapés! I also didn’t know that’s what they were called. In French, “canapé” means couch 🛋️!
And I didn’t know it meant couch! 😂
Great story, Jolene.
I tried to remember what my 1962 lunchbox looked like... then I remembered: I wasn't born yet!
Ha! 😂 Glad I could share this treasure of antiquity with you, Gianni!
JOLENE! First, I was going to get all giddy at the perfect lunch box and how I also eschew-ed peanut butter....and jelly!....however, there is something even more (potentially!) endearing to share as I read on. I though to myself, I also went to an all-girls high school! on Long Island! in a historic convent! Yup, same since-closed ASJ ; )
What happenstance!
Perhaps an overlap of nuns ! ! ! ! !
OMG!! This is the greatest, Jess and how AMAZING!! Emailing you! I did the full 12 years there! Ahhh! 😃
I look forward to it!!!! <3
Just sent, let me know if you got it! 😃
replied! no rush, but I will say it's even more ridiculously sweet and coincidental than imagined : )
I sent a second email! And yes, such a sweet coincidence! :)
Utterly delicious post, Jolene! I think I recognize you in that adorable little girl in the center front! I don’t think my mother made us many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as children either and I don’t remember liking them much. Leftover roast beef, salami or tuna was more likely--on the sliced seeded rye my family favored. Those homemade crackers look amazing, especially with the toppings. When (if!) we ever cool down on this coast, I’ll be giving those a try--perfect prep for holiday gatherings!
Ruth I’ve been thinking about you and Jeff every time I hear about the heatwave in California, hope you’re doing ok! Roast beef sandwich on seeded rye! YES! We always had seeded rye too. Hope things cool down soon! ❤️
Thanks so much, Jolene! We're surviving and hoping it ends soon!
These look delicious - and fellow peanut butter haters unite!
Yes! You can head up the UK chapter of peanut butter haters! 😂 Rachel, I think you’ll love these crackers - really good and a breeze to make. ❤️
What a fun post Jolene! I bring my lunch box to work everyday, it's a black insulated hand bag where I keep one or two tupperwares... very boring compared to yours!
But it sounds very chic, Sinù! Speaking of chic, I’ve been watching all the red carpet footage in Venice for the festival, it must be a crowded week!
Fashionably busy 🤩
Love it! 🤩
😂😘
Dear Jolene--I love all your posts, but I LOVED this one!!!! My mother often made Ritz crackers with soft boiled eggs. Ah, Ritz crackers! Sweet and salty! They bring back so many memories! Thank you for the recipe, the gorgeous photos. I so loved the photo of you as a little girl in your plaid Catholic School Girl uniform. You were adorable--and you still are! Love,
Jamie
Aww, thank you, Jamie. I love soft boiled eggs, perfect with crackers and also toast soldiers! Hope you’re well! ❤️
What memories have surfaced since reading this post! Happy memories of "sack lunches" and my Mom in the kitchen assembling them. I love the picture of you in your classroom, picked you out right away. Unlike you, I love peanut butter. I always have and peanut butter toast is one of my favorite snacks. I do want to make the crackers and hope I can present something as lovely as you have!
Pam, are sack lunches brown paper bag lunches? I’m doing an easy bread recipe Friday, perfect for your peanut butter toast! ❤️
Yes! Brown paper bags. Mom wrote our names on them, and we were instructed to bring them home and re-use. Prior to the bags, we did have lunch boxes. I'm not sure when we switched to bags! I'm looking forward to the bread recipe on Friday. I buy English Muffin Bread at the grocery store. It's a thin bread, and it makes great toast. Had it this morning with--you guessed it!
English muffin bread 🍞 is a trend I can get behind, Pam! :)
Fun article. I myself never liked peanut butter as a kid. I do like as an adult. Love the simple canapés, in this world of tick tick food fad and charcuterie boards the simplicity of your crackers is soothing.
I love endive boats with any manner of stuffings as a canapé.
Lisa, I just added endive boats to my list, thank you! I’m finding out from this post that many of us didn't like it as kids. I’ll try again and see if I like it any better now! Thanks for your comment. ❤️
Oh my--so good to read this, see familiar plaid (!) and the pic of you in school. Your Momma, making special lunches for you, just warms my heart (As the recipient of many soggy PB and frowned banana slices, and a bruised apple... ugh.)
LOVE that you had tea... of course you did!
Hahaha! Always tea, Alison! And yeah, I think the soggy thing was part of the turn-off. btw, I was thinking about your egg nog the other day, the minute September hits, I think it’s the holidays! ❤️
Cream cheese and jelly on crackers!!!! WOW does that ever bring back memories. It was a snack my mom made often for us. Though I haven't had it in years! She also used to make me cream cheese and jelly sandwiches for lunch. One year I had a Raggedy Ann lunch box, another year it was Holly Hobby. I also wore a similar uniform at the school I attended in Brooklyn. Great post!
Cream cheese and jelly on crackers — still delicious! Omg, Lisa, Holly Hobby lunchboxes, I’ve seen tons of them on eBay! I was born in Brooklyn! Where did you go? (If you don’t mind sharing) Thanks so much for your comment! ❤️
I remember it being very delicious. Now I eat the crackers and
cream cheese with homemade red pepper jelly. SO GOOD!
I went to St. Stan's (St. Stanislaus Kostka) in Greenpoint.
I haven't checked Ebay lately. I do check thrift stores sometimes.
It would be fun to have one just for the nostalgia.
Homemade red pepper jelly! 😋 🤩
St. Stan’s!
My late grandmother grew up in Greenpoint and went to elementary school at St. Anthony’s in 1916!
The cracker recipe is great, thanks for sharing!! Good crackers are weirdly difficult to find here, so maybe I’ll just have to make my own 😊 also love that you were already a tea drinker as a kid...you’re a woman who knows what she likes!!
Sam they are so easy to make, no fancy equipment, I think you’ll love them. I was the oldest kid, always around the adults and apparently wouldn’t shut-up till they gave me what they were drinking, so I guess given the choice of coffee, tea or highballs, they opted to give me tea at age 3! 😂❤️
Jolene, this was completely delightful. (And look at how utterly ADORABLE you were!) I’ve long loved cream cheese and jam on crackers — maybe I will bust this out for dinner tonight 😉
Aww, thanks, Sarah! I love ‘bust this out for dinner’! 😂 ❤️
I’ve actually decided to pack it for my kids’ snack, so basically, you’ve saved my sanity 😂
Let’s write a “Kid’s Canapés’ book and save the sanity of working Moms everywhere! ❤️
JOLENE. YESSSSSS.
On it! 🤣
Not sure I'll be making my own crackers anytime soon, but thanks for the time travel back to my own parish school plaid uniform-wearing metal lunch box carrying days. Yes, there were the Friday Frights when you might have had to forgo the bologna sandwich your Mom inadvertently packed. And yes, the thermos would sometimes break, leaving you with a thermos of broken glass and milk. But did those nuns know how to teach! and discipline! 50 in a classroom -- and everyone last one got educated!
The broken Themos! Had forgotten about that! And, yes, the teaching orders of nuns were wonderful educators. Thanks for reading, Jacquelyn!