Gayle Martin | Rosie's Riveting Recipes

Zucchini Nut Bread or Bundt Cake

I do not know where this recipe came from, but I’ve been using it for years and it’s delicious. You can make it as a quick bread, although I prefer to bake it as a bundt cake.

Please note this recipe creates a lot of dough. I recommend using an extra large mixing bowl. I prepare mine in a 7.5 quart bowl.

Gayle Martin

Zucchini Nut Bread or Bundt Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract*
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9 x 4 inch loaf pans or a bundt can. Nonstick cooking spray may also be used.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon together into a mixing bowl or on a sheet of waxed paper. Set aside. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together in an extra large mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients, a little at a time, and mix until well blended with a large wooden spoon. Stir in grated zucchini and nuts. Pour batter into pans. Bake 40 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool pans on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

* Almond extract may be used instead of vanilla extract.

Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives a glimpse into life on the WW 2 home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one with more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World War 2 ration recipes.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, and with other online booksellers.

Very Berry Upside Down Cake

I don’t remember where this recipe came from, but I obviously found it somewhere. It was for a blackberry upside down cake, but I’ve made it with other kinds of berries, including raspberries and blueberries, and it always comes out well. I’ll bet you could even create a black forest upside cake with raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. Come to think of it, that does sound good, so I’ll just call it a very berry upside down cake.

This recipe is great if you’re trying to avoid processed foods and go back to basics, just like they did in Rosie’s day. In fact, I’m sure Rosie would have approved.

Gayle Martin

A Very Berry Upside Down Cake

Topping

1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
2 cups fresh berries, such as blackberries, raspberries or blue berries
1/4 cup sugar

Cake

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F.

Prepare the topping by melting butter and brown sugar in saucepan over medium heat. Add berries. Stir until mixture begins to bubble, about 1 to 3 minutes. Add sugar, stir and crush berries slightly for approximately 5 minutes, or until berries at hot and slightly broken down. Remove from heat and pour into a 9-inch square baking pan.

Prepare the cake batter by creaming the sugar and butter together in a mixing bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix. In a separate bowl whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Alternately add flour and milk to the butter mixture. Add vanilla and mix. Pour batter over the berry mixture. Batter may be thin.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool until pan is slightly warm, about 30 minutes. Run a knife along the edge of the cake to separate it from the sides of the pan. Place a cake plate over the pan and flip. Lift pan to slowly release the cake.

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Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, and with other online booksellers.

Eggless White Cake

Even with food rationing, eggs, like many other everyday items, were in short supply in Rosie’s day. Food companies had to come up with new recipes to make scarce ingredients go further, or even eliminate them completely. This delicious historic recipe, from Rosie’s Riveting Recipes cookbook, omits eggs.

For those who like chocolate cake, but without eggs, here is a recipe for an eggless chocolate cake.

Gayle Martin

EGGLESS WHITE CAKE

¼ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 ¼ cups sifted cake flour
or 2 cups sifted flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream shortening with sugar. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking power and salt. Add alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. Pour into greased and floured 8 ½ inch square pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes in moderate oven (350º).

Eggless Spice Cake

In eggless white cake sift 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, and ¼ teaspoon cloves with dry ingredients.

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Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives a glimpse into life on the WW II home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one with more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World WarII ration recipes with short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com and with other online booksellers.

Eggless Upside-Down Cake

In many ways it seems like post pandemic supply chain issues we are experiencing today are reminiscent of WWII supply chain issues. Back in the nineteen-forties many shoppers found empty store shelves and had to improvise to create healthy, tasty meals. To help ease the shortages, food producers reformulated recipes to use less of those ingredients which were in short supply. Eggs were among those items in short supply.

Adding to today’s supply chain issues is avian flu. It’s creating egg shortages in our own time. Thankfully, those eggless recipes from Rosie’s day are as helpful today as they were in her time.

Gayle Martin

EGGLESS UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 to ½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 ½ cups canned pineapple wedges, peach slices, or cooked prunes
½ cup broken pecan meats, if desired
1 recipe Delicious Cottage Pudding (below)

Melt butter in 8 x 8 x 2-inch pan or 8-inch skillet over low flame. Add brown sugar and cook and stir until thoroughly mixed. On this arrange fruit; sprinkle nuts over top.

Mix Delicious Cottage Pudding batter below as directed and pour over contents of pan. Bake in moderate oven (350º F) 50 to 60 minutes, or until done. Loosen cake from sides of pan with spatula. Turn upside down on dish with fruit on top.

DELICIOUS COTTAGE PUDDING

2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder*
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla

Sift flour once, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Cream shortening, add sugar gradually, and cream together well. Add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Add vanilla. Bake in greased pan, 8 x 8 x 2 inches, in moderate oven, (350F), 50 to 60 minutes, or until done.

*Note: At the time this recipe was written not all baking powders were double-acting. Less baking powder may be needed.

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Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com and with other online booksellers.

Homemade Fondant Candy

This recipe comes from my seventh grade home economics class. I had never heard of fondant before, but the recipe is easy to prepare and the candy is very tasty. I’ve also used this recipe over the years. It’s perfect for birthday parties, Christmas and other special events. Thank you to my teacher, Mrs. Witt, wherever you are. Please note, however, that this is not the same kind of fondant used to decorate cakes. The recipe is solely for making candy.

HOMEMADE FONDANT CANDY

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound powdered sugar
peppermint extract
wintergreen extract
1 jar maraschino cherries
red and green food coloring

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in evaporated milk, vanilla and salt. Remove from heat and gradually add powdered sugar. Turn onto a board lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar and knead until smooth. Makes approximately two cups of fondant. Divide into quarters and prepare the following.

Mint Patties

Mix together 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract and two drops red food coloring to one quarter of the fondant. Shape into small patties or use a cookie cutter to create your own shapes

Wintergreen Patties

Mix together 1/2 teaspoon wintergreen extract and two drops of green food coloring to one quarter of the fondant. Shape into small patties or use a cookie cutter to create your own shapes.

Cherry Drops

Drain cherries and slit each cherry crosswise into four parts. Do not cut all the way through. Press back the “petals” to form a flower. Fill each cherry with a small ball of the remaining fondant and chill.

Other Thanksgiving Ideas

We’re living in some interesting times with ridiculously high food prices and supply chain disruptions. Rosie lived through similar times herself. In her day, even with rationing, grocery shelves were empty and many items, such as sugar, were very difficult to come by. So, if you’re having trouble finding the ingredients for the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, or if you simply want to try something new, here are a few suggestions.

Ham

Ham has been a popular Thanksgiving option for as long as I can remember. Some families serve both ham and turkey. I also have friends whose kids who are allergic poultry, so ham is their traditional holiday meal. It goes well with sweet potatoes too, so bring on the candied yams.

Venison

For those families who are into hunting, venison, or even elk, could be served at Thanksgiving. In fact, I recall once reading an article about the first Thanksgiving feast, and they didn’t have turkey and stuffing. Instead they had local cuisine, which included venison. Keep in mind, however, that wild game tends to have a, “gamey,” flavor which many people don’t like, so it might be a good idea to offer ham, or another dish, for those who don’t like venison.

Lobster

The article I read also said lobster was another served at the first Thanksgiving. Makes sense, as we all know New England is famous for its lobster. You know, I could really, seriously, get into this one. I love lobster, so throw in some red potatoes and corn on the cob, and I’ll be a really happy camper. I may have to serve this myself sometime.

Chicken

I’ve never been overly fond of turkey. It tends to be too dry for my taste, and it’s simply not that flavorful. So last year I began new Thanksgiving tradition. I roasted a chicken instead of a turkey, and it was so much better. Juicier, more flavorful, and I can serve with with stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy. There are also fewer leftovers. Roasted chicken works well for small gatherings, and for a bigger gathering you can probably get two chickens in your turkey roaster. Then, the following day, I make white chicken chili with the leftovers.

So, there you have it, and I’m sure you can come up with other favorite dishes yourselves. I know my favorite Thanksgiving memories aren’t about the food itself. They’re about the family, and friends, I shared it with.

Gayle Martin

The Rosie’s Riveting Recipes historic cookbook is available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble.com, and other online booksellers.

Classic Swiss Steak

This is a classic recipe I learned from my mother, and it’s become one of my personal favorites. It’s easy to prepare and tasty. Best of all, it’s delicious, so enjoy.

CLASSIC SWISS STEAK

2 pound round steak, 1 inch thick
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
¼ cup beef broth or water
1 onion, chopped
½ bell pepper, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix flour, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Cut round steak into 5 or 6 pieces and coat both sides with the flour mixture. Pour oil into skillet, turn on heat to medium, and brown steaks until brown, approximately 7 to 10 minutes per side. Add broth, cover and reduce hit to low. Simmer for 1 hour, adding more broth or water as needed. Turn steaks over, add onions, bell pepper, and canned tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer an additional 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives a glimpse into life on the WW 2 home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one with more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World WarII ration recipes with short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

Banana Muffins

This recipe came to me from a friend and fellow author, David Lee Summers. The recipe is eggless and sugarless and uses honey instead of sugar, but you’d never know it. The muffins are delicious. It’s also a great way to use up over ripe bananas, so Rosie would have approved.

By the way, I used regular all-purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour, and it came out nicely. Bread flour will also work.

Gayle Martin

BANANA MUFFINS (makes 12+ muffins)

5 or 6 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 12-cup muffin pan or use paper baking cups.

Combine flour, nutmeg and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Stir together the bananas, oil, honey, and vanilla in another bowl. and stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Blend with a spoon until moistened. Add chopped nuts, if desired.

Spoon the mixture into muffin cups, filling to the rim. Bake until golden brown-about 20-25 minutes. Serve warm.

Book Cover for Rosies Riveting Recipes — Cover photo by Rob Resetar

Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives readers a glimpse into life on the WWII home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one Rosies’s Riveting Recipes includes more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World War II ration recipes and short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

Corn Pudding

from the pages of Rosie’s Riveting Recipes

This recipe is such a classic, and so simple I’m surprised neither my mother, nor any of my grandmothers, ever prepared it. It is, however, included in the Rosie’s Riveting Recipes historic cookbook, and it’s one of the easiest recipes in the entire book. The results are delicious. The pudding has a rich, buttery flavor, making it the perfect, flavorful side dish. Enjoy.

Gayle Martin

CORN PUDDING

3 eggs
2 cups fresh or canned corn
2 tablespoons melted margarine
salt and pepper
2 cups milk

Beat the eggs. Add all the other ingredients and salt and pepper to taste. Pour into a greased baking dish, place in a pan of hot water, and bake in a moderate oven, (350F) for about 1 hour or until set in the center. Yields 6 servings.

Note: A 15.5 ounce can of corn works nicely for this recipe.

Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives readers a glimpse into life on the WWII home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one Rosies’s Riveting Recipes includes more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World War II ration recipes and short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.

Last-Minute Tomato Soup

from the Rosie’s Riveting Recipes Cookbook

I’ve had to make a few lifestyle changes because my hypertension has become chronic. Two years of lockdowns, mask mandates and 24/7 fear mongering would elevate anyone’s blood pressure. However, my medication was no longer working, and nothing else we tried was working either. So, I decided to put myself on a low sodium diet.

It really wasn’t hard. I stopped eating fast food and processed foods, and I started reading food labels. I was shocked at the amount of salt hidden in our foods. It’s way more than our bodies need. So, I’ve gone back to eating real food made from scratch, just like in Rosie’s day. I’d forgotten how good real food actually tasted.

Today’s recipe is an easy to make alternative to canned tomato soup, and if you’re worried about salt simply use low sodium or salt free tomatoes.

By the way, my blood pressure has dropped. I’m also losing weight and I feel so much better.

Thanks, Rosie.

Gayle Martin

Last Minute Tomato Soup

1 cup cooked tomatoes
3 cups rich milk*
³/₄ teaspoon salt
¹/₄ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon butter, (if desired)

Stir tomatoes well to break up the pulp and juice. Add milk. Heat, stirring frequently. Add salt and pepper and butter, if desired. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

Modern adaptation: Used canned, diced, Italian-style tomatoes to create a flavorful, elegant soup.

* 1940’s term for condensed milk

Imagine the government telling you how much meat or chicken you could buy, or how much sugar or flour you could have. Strange as it may seem, at one time it actually happened. During WWII, the United States government devised a food rationing program to help insure that every family would have enough to eat. Rosie’s Riveting Recipes gives readers a glimpse into life on the WWII home front. A cookbook and a history lesson in one Rosies’s Riveting Recipes includes more than 180 economical, back-to-basics World War II ration recipes and short tales of life on the American home front interspersed throughout.

Rosie’s Riveting Recipes is available on Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com.