Family Recipes

My grandmother passed away just after my daughter was born in January of 2006. One of the treasures that I received when my family was sorting through her belongings was her cookbook-- faded, stained, yellowed, and stuffed full of her notations and recipes jotted down on scraps of paper.

I'm determined to keep these two recipes in the family-- not because I'm particularly taken with them, but because they appear numerous times in the papers slipped into her cookbook. Apparently she kept asking for the recipes (both from my twin great-aunts, her sisters Sammie and Tommie) because she enjoyed the dishes so much, and didn't think she could locate her previous copy. Like most vintage recipes, they're not culinary wonders-- just simple, tasty food, prepared largely from pantry staples. This is small town church potluck food.

I put her notations below in italics. The lemon cake really is tasty; the Tallerina I have yet to try. (Looks like a good recipe for fans of Rotel cheese dip; we all know Velveeta's not really food, but does that keep us from loving it? NO.)

Lemon Cake

1 lemon cake mix
4 eggs
3/4 c oil
3/4 cup water
mis all ing together bake like it says o box.

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
4 T lemon juice
mix togther

While cake is still hot, punch holes in cake with fork; pour icing over cake.

KEEP.
So good!

Talirina (or Tallerinna or Tallerina- it's spelled differently on each copy)
1 lb hamburger
1 can whole corn (drained)
1 can rotel
1 lb velveeta
1 can mushrooms
12 oz egg noodles
1 can tomato soup
(1 can) water (can from tomato soup)

Brown hamburger (drain)
Cook noodles (drain)
Add to hamburger, corn, rotel, mushrooms, tomato soup, velveeta (cut up), 1 can water
Pour this over noodles in a casserole dish.

All are cooked so it's ready to eat.
Will serve 15 or more people!
potluck dish
by (twins) Sammie and Tommie