Grandma Kettle's Pies and Cookies

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Family photos and family “heirloom” recipes mix in this slim volume,
which will be of interest to anyone eager to recapture the
melt-in-the-mouth quality of baked goods from the 1920–40 era.

“Grandma” is Christine Cunningham Kettle of Hamilton, Ontario. Now
85, she looks back on a lifetime of supplying top-quality pies, cakes,
fancy loaves, and cookies to her family and countless church and
community events. The success of her baking comes from a no-compromise
approach to exactly the right ingredients and old-fashioned hard work
and care in the mixing, chopping, blending, and baking.

The recipes are for nostalgia items—Boston cream pie, pecan tarts,
potato scones, penuche icing, pound cake, empire cookies, hermits.
Anyone who carried a school lunch or attended a Sunday picnic during the
1930s or 1940s will recall these goodies.

The photos are from the Kettle family album, and while mainly of
interest to that family do have a slightly wider appeal, as a few depict
the clothing styles of the period.

Notes called “recipe hints” supplement most of the 59 recipes.
These are an eclectic collection of family lore, baking how-to’s,
information on unusual cooking utensils, or alternative methods.
They’re chatty and help form a bridge between the recipe as Grandma
Kettle made it and today’s baking equipment and approaches.