.: Vintage Cookery!

I have a passion.... ok it's an obsession... for vintage cookbooks. I especially love the ones created by industrious church ladies' groups. (The ones that list recipes by Mrs. John Brethwhite and Mrs. Lars Kidrowski.) While I will sometimes test a recipe or two, I never really dove in and utilized the recipes in my everyday cooking. (And I do mean everyday, as I prefer to cook rather than dine out. Cooking is so much fun!) My personal repertoire of recipes that are "go to's" has become too predictable. Beef stroganoff, spaghetti with meat sauce, macaroni and cheese (yes, from scratch!) crust casserole (I'll get in to that one later.) So I decided to start incorporating the recipes from my vintage cookbooks into my rotation.
My most recent find is a Mennonite cookbook from 1950 that has "Eleven hundred mouth watering recipes from old Mennonite cookbooks..."

Perusing this cookbook showed me that these ladies made hearty meals from local ingredients on very modest budgets. And it made sense to me to try these recipes. There really are "mouth watering" recipes that really inspired me. (Well, except for the recipe for Mock Turkey made with a loaf of stale bread and ground sausage. I may have to try that just because!)
I started with Corn Fritters. And I tell you, these are wonderful! They can be served to supplement a meal or as a dessert (if you sprinkle powdered sugar on them and omit the black pepper. Yum!) I recommend these highly! They are inexpensive and can probably be made from ingredients you already have on hand.

Corn Fritters
2 cups fresh corn kernels (I used frozen, thawed and drained)
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Flour (I added an extra 1/4 cup as they didn't hold together well)
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
2 Tablespoons Cream (Low fat milk or buttermilk can be used and still yield a tasty result)
4 Tablespoons oil
Beat the eggs, adding in the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper to make a slurry. Mix well till flour is blended. Add this to the corn and mix well.
Add cream.
Drop mixture by the spoonful to hot oil. (These will splatter and pop, be sure to use a splatter screen!)
Brown on both sides

Sprinkle with salt when they come out of the fryer (or powdered sugar if you prefer sweet fritters, but then omit the pepper in the batter.)

These are ridiculously yummy! I ate them with a dash of Franks Red Hot Sauce and some sour cream. It's so versatile you can come up with any number of condiments.

Try adding some diced Ortega chiles to the batter, or a small amount of shredded cheese. The possibilities are endless!