Happy New Year 2022 - A recipe from a Peanuts cartoon cookbook

This post starts my eleventh year of food blogging.  This blog has had over 103,000 page views, which pleases me to no end.  I am honored and humbled that people want to look at it.  There are 242 posts, most of which were successful.

I also started another food blog, the California Food Project, in which I am exploring the history of California food stuffs and recipes from my "interested amateur" point-of-view.  I've also been translating an historical cookbook that relates to California food history and trying out some of the recipes.  Those results are posted on at least the CA Food Project blog; some are on this blog, too. 

The last two years have been challenging, to say the least:  a pandemic and its associated struggles, supply chain issues, political stress, learning to work from home, and more.  I found myself thinking back to happier, less stressful times.  For me, that often means my childhood.  While I don't mind the responsibilities and expectations of adulthood, there are days when I wish I could return to the innocence of my youth.

A conversation with my friend, GL, a life-long Peanuts cartoon fan, made me think of this cookbook:

Cartoons by Charles Schulz. Recipes by June Dutton.  Pub. 1969 by Determined Productions, Inc.

It is one of the first cookbooks I ever owned.  (The wear and tear on it shows its age!)  The even numbered pages have a recipe, and the odd numbered pages have an appropriate Peanuts cartoon.  The intensely pink paper with bright green borders is representative of the popular colors of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The recipes are accessible to a novice cook, with examples like "Frieda's French Toast" and "Red Baron Root Beer" but also increase in complexity, like "Linus Van Pelt's Mother's Clam Chowder" and "Snoopy's Pizza."  As a kid, I know I learned from it.

I decided I wanted to start off 2022 by revisiting the memories of my childhood with a recipe that is tasty, simple to make, and fun to share with others:  lemon square cookies (page 84).

Lucy's Lemon Squares

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Blend with fingertips until well mixed.  Pat evenly into the bottom of an 8 x 8 inch baking pan.  Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Meanwhile, beat together:

2 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

dash of salt

Pour over baked crust and return to oven for 20-25 minutes at same temperature.

Cool on rack.  Cut in squares.  Sprinkle with sifted, powdered sugar.

My Notes

The butter was cold from the refrigerator and I wanted it that way.  I cut it into pieces before putting into the flour and powdered sugar.

Butter not cut up enough

These pieces were not small enough to blend with the dry ingredients.  I used a knife to cut them up into smaller pieces while in the bowl, then I was able to mix and blend them using my fingers.  I worked it until the mixture formed a dough, like a pie crust dough.

The pan I used (can you believe I don't have an 8 x 8 inch pan?) was 11 x 7, so more square inches than the recipe called for, but I used it anyway.  I patted the dough evenly across the bottom.  I remember to grease the pan first!

It baked for about 17 minutes and then it looked ready.  My oven sometimes runs a bit hot so I watched it for the last five minutes and pulled it early.

While the crust was baking, I mixed the topping ingredients, except the baking powder.  I put that in just before pouring the mixture over the crust.  Note that you put the topping on while the crust is still hot.

 

The pan went back into the oven for 15 minutes.  The lovely scent warned me it was ready, even before the 20 minutes was up.  

After it cooled, I sprinkled on some powdered sugar and cut it into rectangles (yes, not squares!).

The Verdict

I cut it into 15 pieces.  The ones near the edges caramelized somewhat so they were harder to remove than the ones in the center.  However, I did get them out.

You can see the layers.

Pretty with a light sprinkle of powdered sugar.

The taste:  the crust was crispy and very buttery.  The topping was lemony and sweet.  Not tart at all.   It was very rich!

As a kid, I would have loved this.  As an adult, it was very sweet, and I wanted it to be less sweet and more lemony and more tart.  One piece was enough.  I think I would decrease the sugar in the topping and increase lemon juice.  But it was good.  I think it would be nice to take to a gathering where I knew kids would be around.  Still, I would cut them into small pieces -- yes, it is that rich.  

So success.  Mostly success for kids, so it succeeded in reminding me of my childhood.

Happy New Year!  May we have a good and bountiful year.