This is an archived post from “The Aroma of Bread,” and was first published 1 Jun 2012.
Yesterday, May 31st, was Dennis’ birthday, he would have been 62 years old this year. It was also his nephew Mike’s birthday. Happy Birthday!
Birthdays in Marie’s kitchen meant Angel Food Cake, and it had to have confetti in the mix. A plain angel food was not a birthday cake, although plain angel food was perfect for summer strawberries that had been sugared, mashed, and left to sit while dinner was eaten. Years after box angel food cakes became available, Marie never tired of the novelty and ease of an angel food box cake. She had a vivid memory of mixing these cakes by hand, standing at the counter and whisking, whisking, whisking the egg whites till they were stiff.
Marie, who was given the nickname of “Wee” by her father because she was so small, learned to cook at a very early age. She was always needed to help her mother prepare the meals for the thrashers and other hired hands on the farm, but when she was a small child, her mother was often ill. Because of this, Marie would be responsible for preparing the full meal on her own. When she shared stories with me from this time, I could just imagine this small girl standing on the step stool wrapped in a big apron, mixing, cooking, baking, and making angel food cakes by hand.
Growing up on the farm, they did not have indoor plumbing nor electricity until Marie was well into adulthood, so there were many years where the only way to make this favorite cake was made by hand, and then baked in an oven heated by wood. What always struck me was that she did not talk about the novelty of using an electric mixer, or for that matter an electric oven! But it was the ease of opening a box, adding water, mix, and voila! Angel food cake.
A recipe from the 1944 edition of The Settlement Cookbook, page 437.
ANGEL FOOD CAKE ~ No. 1
1 1/2 cups egg whites, 12 or 13
1 3/4 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar, measured lightly
1 1/4 teaspoons flavoring
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour
Beat egg whites with a wire whip. Add cream of tartar and salt when eggs are frothy. Continue beating until a point of the egg whites will stand upright. Gradually beat in one cup of the sugar, which has been sifted twice. Fold in the flavoring. Sift flour once before measuring. Fold in flour gradually, which has been sifted 3 times with remaining 3/4 cup of sugar. Pour into dry, ungreased 10-inch tube pan and bake 65 minutes in a moderate oven, 325 degrees F. Invert pan until cake is entirely cold.
Archived posts from “The Aroma of Bread,” first published 12 Oct 2013, with comments from 12 Oct 2020.
It is so hard to believe that it has been seven years since the summer that we spent cleaning out Butch and Marie’s house and preparing it for sale. So much has happened since that time.
Here is the post from 2013:
A couple of weeks ago we were at the house to continue the cleaning. On the agenda for this particular day was to clean out the eaves, which were full of leaves and debris.
Standing on the ladder doing a task that he had done many many times over the years, Gary got to thinking and remembering. Remembering the time that he was up on the roof painting the trim on this very window. Having finished painting, he needed to clip the aluminum storm back onto the house. Finding he needed some help holding the window in place – or the ability to grow extra arms, he asked Marie to lend him a hand. Up for the challenge, she climbed into the tub, and at 5’2″ (on a good day), she fearlessly took hold of her side of the window. As Gary worked to get it clipped, and Marie worked to hold it steady, she said for the first time what would become a favorite family phrase: “Strong like bull!” And that was almost the end of the window as both she and Gary got the giggles as they looked at each other through the opening.
Cleaning out the gutters that nice fall day, Gary paused to remember a moment of shared laughter with his mother.
This is anarchived post from “The Aroma of Bread,” and it was first published 22 Mar 2015.
Assorted Shamrocks. Old and New
Marie Campbell Fassbender loved her Irish heritage. She was proud to be Irish, and she loved St. Patrick’s day.
As the day would near, she would gather a collection of shamrock pins, and she would keep them handy. If you dared attempt to leave the house, or to walk into the house without wearing green, she would hand you a pin, and expect you to wear it.
It would have been so much fun to sit down with a big map of Ireland, and map out the counties where her immigrant ancestors came from. I think she would have been surprised at the number!
County Cork, County Donegal, County Down, County Louth, County Monaghan, and County Tyron
I was searching for an apple recipe the day that I happened upon a page in the “Tried and True Recipes. Compiled by the Homemakers Organization of Calumet County, Wisconsin,” dated 1974. The page did not have a marker, but did contain a recipe that we have been looking for: Grasshopper Torte. This was a staple on the holiday table. A palette cleanser before or after your piece of pumpkin pie. And there was definitely room for a piece when it was time for sandwiches.
Looking over this recipe filled with Marie’s notes, the one thing I notice is that she did not make a notation that she always made this torte on a graham cracker crust. Maybe it went without saying, as chocolate wafers were not readily available to her in 1974. But her directions for smooth marshmallow are clear and direct. Is this “THE” Grasshopper Torte recipe? I am not sure, but it is definitely one that she had made more than once.
This is one version of the torte, and she (used this for larger torte).
An archived post from “The Aroma of Bread,” first published 3 Mar 2013.
Not every post will be a stellar post, but every post will be tied to a memory. I don’t have any idea what we were talking about, but all of a sudden the memory of what I will call the “Hen Parties” popped into my mind.
The fourth Tuesday of every January was the night for the White Clover Dairy Shareholder meeting. In the early 80s following the buy-back of WCD from the Nestle Company, the meetings were held in the school basement with snacks and of course a few beers following the meeting. By 1985 the meeting was moved to the small dining room of Van Abels. As the company continued to prosper, dinner was being added to the meeting agenda, and the wives were invited to join the men for dinner.
Christmas 1984
So the question became, what to do with the women while the men were meeting, as they would have ridden out to Hollandtown with their husbands. So in the solid tradition of Fassbender hospitality, Marie invited the wives to join her in her home for cocktails, snacks and conversation.
When I joined the party in 1988, the tradition, and the party, was in full swing. I had worked till 5:00 p.m. and then had the 20 minute drive to Hollandtown, so I was a bit late. I still remember walking into the living room as all eyes turned to me, and I looked at them. They were already settled with their drinks. Plates of cheese and sausage, nuts, and assorted other snack items filled the tables. Every last one of them dressed in heels and hose – including me. That is how we dressed in those days. Drinks and conversation flowed until the appointed time when we all got into our cars and drove over to Van Abels to join the men for dinner.
Thankfully this tradition only lasted a few more years, and sometime in the early 90s we were invited to join the men at Van Abels for the Shareholder meeting. It was also a relief for Marie. While she loved to host people in her home, she did not especially enjoy these evenings.
There are very few pictures that fully show the living room as it was in those days. These images hopefully will spark memories of this room, and all of the times gathered for plates of cheese and sausage, beverages and time spent as a family.SaveSaveSaveSave
St. Mary’s Hilbert Cookbook, 1970s, p. 36 (very good)
Archived post from “The Aroma of Bread,” first published 13 January 2016.
In 1938, when Marie was 16 years old, she and her brother, Arthur, would head to Chilton on Saturday, for a 2:00 p.m. music lesson. Marie, piano, and Arthur the violin. While cleaning out her attic in 2013, I discovered her piano report card tucked into a music book. It made me smile.
Stated on the “Student Account and Lesson Record” side of the card, her lessons that year cost forty cents a lesson, and her Book 5 lesson book was sixty cents. Well, to say “that year” is a bit of a stretch. Her report card states that she attended nine lessons between January 7th and April 15th.
The best part of the report card is the reverse side, the “Student Record Card.” From this side we learn that she was interested in playing Popular or Classical music, not Hill Billy or Church. Her ultimate ambition for taking piano: Entertainment. Her report card was mostly “A” for accuracy, concentration, aptitude, memorizing, analyzing, and general playing ability. She received a “B” for her rhythm, and a “C” for phrasing. The definition of phrasing is: “Does the music make sense–is it pleasing?” Hmmm. I would love to know what that means.
My favorite part of the card is her teacher’s remarks: “Exceptional talent. Keep on doing the best. Come more regular.”
Caramel Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
Melt butter in a saucepan on low. Stir in brown sugar, and cook for 2 minutes. Add milk, cook until boils. Cool until lukewarm.
When lukewarm, add mixture to a small bowl. Using a hand mixer on low speed, add the sifted powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until blended, then increase the speed of the mixer to high, and and mix until a spreading consistency.
Archived post from “The Aroma of Bread,” first published 13 February 2016.
1942 – Outside the Fassbender home in Hollandtown
Marie met Butch when she was just 19 years of age, and as her brother states, she was in her “hyper faze.”
My in-laws met in June 1941 at the wedding of Butch’s brother, Hubert (Cub), to Dolores Wenzel. It was a small ceremony, taking place in the pastor’s chambers. Butch was standing up for Cub, and as a long time friend of Dolores, Marie had been asked to stand up as Dolore’s witness. The two girls had become friends when Dolore’s father worked as a hired hand on the Campbell farm, and the Wenzel family lived in a small house located on an edge of the Campbell farm. Marie agreed to be Dolore’s attendant, never imagining that her life was about to change.
Following the marriage of Cub and Dolores, the two couples remained friends. When Butch and Marie married in 1946, Dolores attended Marie as a bridesmaid, and Cub was a groomsman. It was into their home in Dundas, that the newly wed Butch and Marie moved, while their own home was being constructed in Hollandtown.
But about Butch and Marie. Shortly after they met, they started dating, and Marie loved to tell this story about herself from that period in time. Although she had met and was dating Butch, she was keeping her options open, and continued dating other men, specifically a man named Bill. On one particular day, she was visiting with Bill in the living room at the farm. They were having a great time, and Marie lost trackof the time, almost forgetting that Butch would soon be arriving to pick her up for an evening out. That is until she heard his car pull into the yard. As he headed to the front door, Marie began rushing Bill out the side door – or vice versa, I never thought to ask. Her father, Walter, met Butch at the door, stalled him a bit so that Bill was out of the house, and Marie could catch her breath, then let him in.
Couple unidentified, but a great shot from the drive of the farm, and both the front and side porch. Notice how close the porches are to each other.
The next day, Walter sat Marie down and said that enough was enough, she had to make a choice, as he was not going to go through all that drama again. She made her choice, and for the next five years she and Butch dated, getting married at St. Mary’s in Hilbert on May 7, 1946. They would have celebrated 70 years of marriage this year!
Marie’s Chicken Dumpling Soup
from Wende
Chicken Broth
1 cup up fryer chicken
Celery, cut into chunks for broth
Salt and pepper
Carrots
Celery for soup
Noodles, cooked
Put chicken in a pot with just enough water to cover it. add the celery and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Remove chicken from broth and cool. When cool, bone the chicken, and skim the fat off of the broth. Season the broth with salt and pepper, or Nature’s Seasons. Add carrots and celery to the broth, cook for five minutes, keeping the broth at a low boil.
Dumplings
5 eggs
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
Mix all ingredients. Using a spoon, drop by small spoon full the dumplings into the low boiling broth. Cover the pot, cook the dumplings for 15 minutes ( do not take the cover off the pot).
After the dumplings have cooked, add the chicken and cooked noodles to the pot. Cook for 5 more minutes before serving.
