(Continutd from Pag* B 9)
Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup lard
2 cups mashed pumpkin
2 cups brown sugar
Sift together:
4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Cream pumpkin, sugar, and lard. Add sifted ingredients.
Add:
1 cup nuts (optional)
1 cup raisins or dates
Drop on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for
approximately 12 minutes.
Ice with confectioners frosting flavored with maple
flavoring.
Stovetop Cookies
2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa
% cup butter
'A cup milk
Boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in:
3 cups oatmeal
'A cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Drop by teaspoonful onto waxed paper. Chill.
2 cups butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
414 cups flour
% teaspoon salt
V/i cups chopped nuts
Cream butter and sugar. Mix in remaining ingredients.
Shape into one-inch balls. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12
minutes. Roll in confectioners’ sugar. Cool. Roll in confection
ers’ sugar again.
Variation; use coconut or finely chopped candied cherries
instead of nuts.
Old-Fashioned Ginger Cookies
3 cups dark molasses
1 cup sugar
2 cups shortening
8-10 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
IVs cups buttermilk
Heat molasses and sugar. Stir in shortening and then dry
ingredients alternately with buttermilk, ending with flour,
adding no more than needed to make a firm dough. Chill. Roll
'/< -inch thick. Cut out and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25
minutes.
ANSWER—John Probst, Springfield, wanted a recipe for
mustard eggs. Thanks to Barb Gayman, Chambersburg, for
faxing this recipe.
Mustard Eggs
10-12 hard cooked eggs
3 tablespoons prepared mustard
% cup sugar
Vt cup vinegar
1 cup water
Pinch salt
Mix all ingredients except eggs and heat just until warm.
Add eggs and store in refrigerator for a day or so to develop
flavor. A blender or hand blended make the mustard mixture
smoother.
ANSWER Lou Stryker from Haddon Heights, N.J.,
wanted an ethnic German recipe for potato soup, which she
remembers her grandmother making with chunks of potatoes
and a broth similar to vegetable or beef soup.
Potato Soup
5 cups cubed raw potatoes
1 cup diced onion
2 cups chicken stock (no fat)
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
'/«teaspoon dried hot pepper
’/«teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 cup light sour cream
1 teaspoon bacon bits
Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft about 15-20
Minutes. Add sour cream, heat just until smooth and hot.
Garnish with bacon bits. Serves 4.
Question
Russian Tea Cakes
Cook's
Comer
Family Living
Focus
by
Multi-County
Extension Agent
Winifred McGee
Almost every day, I talk to
someone who wants to start their
own business. The phone calls al
ways have a truly optimistic note.
Each caller has a wonderful idea
their friends have told them so
—and they want to begin making
some money using skills that they
just happened to pick up through a
hobby or interest of one sort or an
other. Their enthusiasm usually
has them floating high on a cloud
of optimism... no time for plan
ning now! Moving now (before
others steal the idea) is foremost
on their minds.
But should it be? The rare sec
ond phone calls I receive indicate
ANSWER Beth Graves, Columbia, wanted a recipe for
Depression Potato Soup made with ground beef, onions, and
diced potatoes. Thanks to Orpah Umholtz, Valiey View, who
sent a recipe that her dad brought home from World War I.
The family called it Slum Soup and made it a lot during the
Depression. It is one of the best soups that Orpah has tasted.
Depression Potato Soup
Impounds ground beef
1 quart corn
1 quart potatoes, diced
Parsley
1 chopped onion
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown ground beef and onion in oil or shortening. Add 1
quart water. Add potatoes, corn, and parsley.
Cook 30 to 45 minutes until potatoes are done. Add more
water if needed.
ANSWER —Tina Forry, Palmyra, wanted an old recipe for
chocolate chip cookies, which are soft and round almost like a
sugar cookie. Thanks to Eileen Dove for sending a recipe,
which she writes was requested by Carol Grove.
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
% cup margarine
1/> cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 cup evaporated milk
2 A cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Vt teaspoon baking powder
'A teaspoon salt
1 package chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Cream butter and brown sugar until light. Add eggs and
beat well. Add vanilla and vinegar to evaporated milk. Sift dry
ingredients and add alternately with milk to creamed mixture;
mix well.
Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded tables
poons, two inches apart, on greased cookie sheet. Bake in
350 oven about 15 minutes or until delicately brown and firm
to touch. Cool on rack.
ANSWER This is actually an answer to several
requests, for Betty Gruver, Hope, N.J., who wanted recipes to
make fresh pork sausage, Italian sweet sausage, and Italian
hot sausage in bulk, to a Kutztown reader who wanted a
recipe for pepperoni made with venison or beef, and to Rose
Diehl, Bloomsburg, who wanted a recipe for Venison and
Pork Soupie. Bob Downey of Street, Md., writes that he
makes a lot of homemade sausages and jerky. His bible for
these projects is a book written by Rytek Kutas called "Great
Sausage Recipe and Meat Curing.” The best jerky recipe Bob
ever is in the book. There are also recipes for ground beef and
venison jerky, pepperoni, souse and much, much more. A
free catalog of Sausage Making, Smoking, and Meat Curing
supplies, equipment, and spices may be requested by writing
to Sausage Maker, 26 Military Rd., Buffalo, N.Y. 14207 or call
(716) 876-5521 or fax (716) 875-0302. A Shirley Walters of
Lockport, N.Y. also recommends the Sausage Maker, but she
gives the street addred as 177 Military Rd. We are not sure
which address is correct.
Bob writes that when making 5-pound or less batches of
jerky, he uses an American Harvest Dehydrator. For dried
ground meat sticks similar to Slim Jims, American Harvest
Jerkey Works is a great help. The company sells seasoning
kits for various flavors of ground beef jerky.
that hopeful optimism is great, but
it doesn’t go far if it replaces good
planning in the operation of a
small business. Luck is good at the
carnival, when the stakes are a
dollar and it’ll all go to charity
anyway. That’s a small risk, much
the same as getting up in the
morning. Business is a big risk,
though, of money, time, and
ego so careful planning is
needed to see that things go the
way optimism said they should.
It’s easiest if you plan for success
from the start of your business
venture, but it’s never too late.
Taking time now to go through the
following steps will help a start-
Lancaatar Farming, Saturday, February 24, 1996-817
up. or existing, business to start
down the path of success.
First, stop and think. Is your
(business) idea a good one for
you? An important first step is to
assess your personal situation so
that you have a clear understand
ing of how well your business fits
in with your life, overall. This in
volves asking yourself a series of
questions.
• Are you willing to make deci
sions and see things through to the
end, take criticism and rejection
and be organized and self-disci
plined so that you may reach suc
cess?
■ Are you willing to work hard
for your idea, and stick with it
even if rewards are slow in com
ing?
• Do you tend to plan, getting
things lined up before you jump
into action?
■ Is this idea likely to have the
support of your family and
friends, or might it add stress to
your home life?
■ Are you willing to take the
risks necessary to reach your
goals?
• Can you use existing re
sources, such as family labor,
buildings, equipment and experi
ence, to serve as the building
blocks for your enterprise?
* Does the enterprise offer the
potential for positive new experi
ences that might complement your
current lifestyle and responsibili
ties?
Optimism is replaced by as
surance when you ask yourself: Is
your idea a good BUSINESS
idea? You can get a good feel for
this by answering some of the fol
lowing questions:
• Just how clear is my idea and
how clearly can I tell others about
it?
• Who are my customers and
what ate their needs and wants?
• How do I connect with my
customers?
• Who is my competition? If
there is no competition, why not?
• How many people will buy
my product or service? Is this
number likely to grow or get
smaller in the future? What will I
do when this happens?
• What kind of equipment, fu
tilities, and supplies will I need?
How much will this cost?
• Who will do the work and how
will it get done?
• How much money will 1 have
to spend in the next year, and how
much can I REALLY expect to
make?
Careful thought and time spent
in research should help you to an
swer these questions. Don’t make
the mistake of figuring that the
questions will answer themselves!
After you assess your personal
situation and do some research, if
the business is still a “go,” you
need to set pen to paper (or boot
up the computer) and plan how
you’ll actually do the business. A
business plan is the best tool
you’ll have for your enterprise. It
is a summary of what your busi
ness is, what your goals are, the
results of your marketing and pro
duction research and your pro
jected expenses and income. It
does not have to be an epic. For a
simple, one-person, part-time
business with small start-up costs,
a plan may take two sheets of pa
per. A larger, more complex idea
that needs bank financing may
mean putting together a document
an inch thick.
One thing that all plans have in
common is that the writer, that
business owner, took the time and
care necessary to plan for his or
her success ... not just hope for
it. “Hopers” are here today and
gone tomorrow. “Planners” are in
for the long, successful, haul.