Marguerites Cookbook - Page 3 of 6 - A cooking blog all about making vintage recipes from a cookbook we inherited from our grandmother (2024)

Now that we’ve shown you Marguerite’s pie crust, we’re NOT going to use it today. Let’s change gears! Our first pie is a Creme de Menthe Pie that is anything but traditional. It has some exciting and different ingredients and turned out quite unlike anything we expected.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

In researching ingredients for this recipe, both Aaron and I did not realize that Creme de Menthe was a liqueur. In the 25 plus years Aaron knew Marguerite, he never knew her to have a drink, or talk about alcoholic beverages. There isn’t much of this mint liqueur in the pie, but it made a great additional flavor. Aaron had to go to three different stores to find Creme de Menthe, which was the hardest part of the recipe!

Aaron’s favorite part of this creme de menthe pie recipe was making the crust. It called for 24 Oreo cookies, but without the cream in the middle. Aaron of course didn’t want that filling to go to waste . . .

Mixing a whole 32 ounces of Cool Whip in our average sized stand mixer, in our 24 square foot kitchen was a test in patience, but other than that, making this recipe was pretty simply. Once we poured the liquid into the spring form pan, all that was left was to wait for it to set.

As you can see, it had a slight tint of green that really just hinted at the mint flavor. I think next time, I’ll add a little green food coloring to make it more fun. The thing that surprised us the most about the creme de menthe pie was the consistency and texture. While it retained some of the stickiness and elasticity of the little bit of marshmallow fluff, it could only be described as ice cream cake like. It was firm right out of the freezer, but did melt like ice cream but slower. We both loved this creme de menthe pie! My favorite things about it were the fact that it tasted like ice cream cake, as well as the hint of mint flavor. Aaron is not necessarily lining up for super-minty anything, but even he enjoyed the mint flavor of this recipe. He also appreciated the way the mint flavor paired with the Oreo crust.

With the holidays coming up, this creme de menthe pie recipe could be a great treat. Or you could save it for a warm summer night (when those finally come back around!)

Happy Pie Month! To kick off this month of delicious desserts, we’re going to start with the basics. According to many people in our family, the best part of Marguerite’s pies were the crust. While there was not a handwritten recipe anywhere in the cookbook, Aaron’s mom was able to give us the low-down.

Marguerite used a basic Crisco pie crust recipe. Aaron’s mom, Mercedes, is a bit of an expert on this crust. She tried to make pies with Marguerite and similar to Marguerite’s many times. A difficult task, because Marguerite said the best crust was one that you didn’t handle too much. Mercedes confessed it was something she was never great at. We think we aren’t quite there yet either, but with the amount of pie’s we’ll be making on this blog, we are hopeful we can get there someday! We already covered it a while ago with our Cranberry Cherry Pie, but we think it’s worth giving it it’s own post.

Some of the pies in this month will not be made with Marguerite’s perfect pie crust. We’re trying to balance out some of the more “traditional pies” with some unique ones; many of which don’t involve a traditional crust. Just for ease, we’ll also be using a few pre-made pie crusts in place of this crust as well.

That being said, Marguerite’s perfect pie crust is something we enjoy making, because it is one of the things she made best that everyone remembers. So keep an eye out during Pie Month for this crust!

Check out the recipe below and enjoy Marguerite’s Cookbook’s Pie Month!

We here at Marguerite’s Cookbook have a had a blast this past year making all the different recipes Marguerite and her friends left in her book. At least 50% of those recipes are desserts and the one she was most known for was pie. Thinking through it realistically, there is no way we’d be able to make all the pies while spacing them out with all the other recipes. So, we decided to make every November PIE MONTH! We’ll be making and sharing at least 4 pies with you every November, as well as spacing a few more throughout the year. We’ll try to share the more summery pies, such as the Cherry Parfait Pie, around that time of year and pile on the traditional pies in November. With the holidays being so focused on desserts, we thought this would be a great way to share a bunch of recipes with you and maybe give you some ideas for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or whatever else you might be celebrating this time of year! Our first pie of PIE MONTH will post on November 1, so stay tuned!

As far as comfort foods go, especially for me, potatoes are some of the best! This fluffy potatoes recipe is a relatively simple one to make, although I didn’t think it was the best use of potatoes. Take a look at this recipe with us, and you can decide for yourself.

As you can see, this recipe came from one Mrs. Dougherty. She was a parent of six children, all of whom had Marguerite as their second grade teacher! Mrs. Dougherty worked hard with Marguerite to help all her children learn and succeed. She was a wonderful parent and a wonderful lady who became friends with Marguerite due to her dedication to her kids.

While this recipe has an extremely short ingredient list, the preparation of these fluffy potatoes did have some issues. Aaron did not enjoy peeling and grating hot potatoes. (If you would like, you may insert a joke involving the game “hot potato.”) However, once the potatoes were peeled and grated, and the Cool Whip added, it was just time to wait.

Once the fluffy potatoes were cooked, they looked different than a normal potato recipe. They also tasted very different. For me, they were just way too sweet. I felt like it was almost a waste of perfectly good potatoes! Aaron did agree that the fluffy potatoes were too sweet, but not as much as I did. He felt that he could have enjoyed them by just lessening the amount of Cool Whip or whipping heavy cream instead.

If you want a sweet and simple potato recipe for your family, give this fluffy potatoes recipe a try.

What’s better in cool fall weather than a nice warm bowl of soup? I’d say not many things are. Considering the fact that both of us came down with the flu this past week, soup was a much needed thing. This broccoli chowder soup is a delicious creamy treat to keep you warm this fall. If you liked our broccoli cheese soup, then you will really like this broccoli chowder soup!

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

You may notice that Marguerite calls for either three packages of frozen broccoli or one head of fresh broccoli. Aaron had a bit of trouble reading this recipe, and at first thought he was supposed to cook both frozen and fresh broccoli. He could try and blame it on the diminishing use of cursive writing these days, but it just wasn’t his day. After fixing that issue, this soup turned out great.

Aaron was proud of his time management during this recipe, chopping ingredients efficiently while other ingredients cooked in the pot. That was, until he let the broth, milk, and ham boil over. He caught it quickly enough and turned the heat down before he burnt the milk. After he added the remaining ingredients, this broccoli chowder soup took shape right away.

I don’t particularly care for creamy soups, so I only had a few spoonfuls. It was very appetizing and just like a broccoli chowder soup should taste, just not my thing. Aaron really enjoyed it, and commented that he liked it more even more than the aforementioned broccoli cheese soup. Marguerite did us a favor and put both recipes on the same page, which made comparing them to each other easier. He thinks the chowder was better due to the increased milk/cream, decreased chicken broth, and how it was cooked up. The extra cheese didn’t hurt either.

This broccoli chowder soup will definitely warm Aaron’s stomach this fall. If you need a tasty soup to warm you up this season, Marguerite’s broccoli chowder soup can hit the spot.

It’s fall, and one of the most popular ingredients in fall cooking is zucchini. This is the time that zucchini are in season, and Marguerite took advantage of that with quite a few zucchini recipes. We planned on making this recipe back in August, but skipped it due to moving. However, the recipe that was supposed to be on the blog this week turned into such a failure we had to switch it up. Don’t worry, though, we will share all of our recipe fails with you sometime around Christmas!

Until then, here is what Marguerite had to say about this zucchini torte recipe:

As you can see, this recipe has an interesting set of ingredients. So, as with a lot of our recipes, Aaron asked his mom for some clarification. She said a torte can either be like a cake or like a quiche in her experience. She also suggested which pan we should cook the zucchini torte in since Marguerite did not specify.

Making this zucchini torte was simple and straightforward. Cubing the zucchini was obviously a bit time consuming but mixing all the ingredients took no time at all. I do not like zucchini very much, so I did not even want to try this zucchini torte. I did think that it looked nice, and might appeal to someone who likes zucchini. Aaron did try it, because one of us had to, and he will eat almost anything. He did not enjoy this zucchini torte. It tasted strongly of zucchini, and not of much else. He also felt it didn’t taste enough like a cake or a quiche.

Aaron said to me, “if I had extra zucchini around, I’d put it in some bread before this any day.” But if you like zucchini, this torte is probably for you. We hope you enjoy Marguerite’s zucchini torte!

Happy Autumn everyone! As the weather cools down around us and the leaves begin to change, that brings to mind one of the most popular fall flavors. Pumpkin. The most famous pumpkin recipe is probably pumpkin pie, but we’ve got that coming for you a bit closer to Thanksgiving. Today we have a delicious pumpkin bread that really ushers in the fall season.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

This recipe is actually from another of Marguerite’s teaching colleagues and friends from her many years of teaching, Kathy Hoffman. You may notice it appears one thing is missing from this recipe. While making it, Aaron wasn’t sure the flour was mistakenly forgotten, but it was obvious once all the other ingredients were mixed together that this wasn’t going to turn into bread without flour.

After that, this pumpkin bread recipe was very simple to make. It was actually on the same page in the book as our zucchini bread recipe, and is very similar as far as ingredients and prep. I do not like pumpkin flavored things, but I found this pumpkin bread to be delicious! It tasted like autumn. That is, the spices masked the pumpkin flavor enough that I was able to enjoy this. I had too many pieces!

Aaron also loved how this pumpkin bread tasted more like spices than pumpkin. He also loved the color once it was baked, as well as the smell of the bread baking. He was so excited after tasting it, that he went right back into the kitchen and made another loaf with the remaining pumpkin we had! This was mostly because he knows his coworkers will eat it all up and there will be none left for us! We hope you enjoy this pumpkin bread recipe this fall with us.

Coffee cake is one of those desserts that can be made in so many different ways and with many different flavors. This is just a basic coffee cake recipe given to Marguerite by another of her teaching colleagues, Susie Matha.Sometimes, plain and simple recipes are the way to go.

Here is what Susie had to say:

First things first, Aaron was confused that this recipe was called sour cream coffee cake and he was confused that the recipe did, in fact, contain sour cream. He did not realize that sour cream can be a common ingredient in baked goods. He also didn’t realize how much work could go in to preparing a baked good to be made. We both felt that it took a bit too long of a time to put together, between the combining of ingredients, the grinding of nuts, and the layering of batter and filling in the pan. But it was sooooooo delicious.

It was soft and spongy like a well made cake should be, plus the cinnamon, sugar, and nuts (we used almonds), made a delicious filling. We made sure to grease and flour the pan before pouring the batter, which was great help in removing the pieces of cake after baking.

The aroma of this cake filled our apartment for like two hours. By the time we cut into it, we we’re impatient and hungry. Cutting the coffee cake a little too soon caused it to be too soft and to crumble as we tried to take it out. Once cooled the cake was easy to cut and plate to eat. Was it ever delicious! I wasn’t crazy about how brown the sides and bottom got, and that may be due to over baking it, or even due to the type of tube pan we used. But I did enjoy the insides of the coffee cake. Aaron enjoyed it greatly as well. He, of course, enjoyed several pieces along with coffee.

Thankfully for both of us, Aaron took the extra to share with his coworkers. They also really enjoyed it and upon cleaning out the container it was in, told Aaron he could “take it home and fill it with more coffee cake!” I think we would consider that a great success.

There’s no question that the most numerous type of recipe in Marguerite’s cookbook is desserts, and we’ll get back to another one of those next week! But first, a recipe that is most likely the second popular in the book—a chicken recipe. This inside-out chicken kiev was a delicious twist on a classic!

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

You may notice a few differences between Marguerite’s recipe and our version below. The main difference is the title. We knew that a typical chicken kiev usually has the butter and spices stuffed and cooked on the inside, which was not a part of Marguerite’s recipe. So we decided to rename this recipe ‘inside-out chicken kiev.’ Aaron was almost as excited about the catchy new name as he was about the dish itself!

Some other changes we made included minimizing the cook time from Marguerite’s and substituting dried ingredients for fresh ones. We make some type of chicken recipe about once a week and usually only cook it for up to 30 minutes. So when we read how long Marguerite wanted us to cook this recipe, we thought: That’s crazy! And so Aaron’s mother fielded yet another recipe-related phone call from us. We seriously call her 3-4 times while making these. Seriously. She agreed with Marguerite on the cooking time, but the thought of overly dry chicken still made us cringe. We’re glad we went with our guts and cut the cook time. Sorry Marguerite and Mercedes!

This inside-out chicken kiev smelled great while it was cooking, which made waiting for dinner time to eat it torture! I really liked this chicken recipe. I’ve liked almost all of the things we’ve been making lately, actually. The combination of the spices on the chicken made it incredibly flavorful. A whole bunch of butter slathered on it doesn’t hurt either. As Marguerite’s mother always said “If it calls for one stick of butter, then two will make it twice as good!” Okay, Paula Deen. Aaron also liked this inside-out chicken kiev. But, as I’ve mentioned before, he likes everything.

We hope you try this simple recipe with your family. We think you’llenjoy this inside-out chicken kiev as much as we did!

Time for another great fall recipe. And this time, surprise surprise, its a dessert! This apple compote had its ups and downs, but turned out okay in the end.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

Not Marguerite’s typical handwriting, huh? Well, as you will see as we go along, Marguerite also added magazine clippings of recipes that she must have liked into her cookbook as well. Aaron was excited to try this, because his mom would frequently make an apple dish during the holidays that he really liked. This recipe, however, did not quite turn out like that one.

First of all, as anyone who has done apple dishes can attest, peeling apples is not an enjoyable task. That step took up over 90% of the prep time. Once that part of prep was completed, the rest of the recipe came together easily. When putting the ingredients together, wemade a layer of apples, put the other ingredients on top, and then mixed them all together.

When the apple compote first came out of the oven, we were concerned and unimpressed. It was still somewhat watery, while the apples seemed overcooked and dried out. There were a few thoughts we had as to why this happened. First we weren’t sure if we had put enough apples in. Then, since today’s cranberry sauce cans usually hold 2 less ounces than before, we thought that might add to it. Finally, this is our first recipe in our new oven, which always has its own complications. But, unlike our old apartment, this oven is at least a full sized one. Yay tiny apartment living!

As you can see from the pictures, once we put this apple compote into individual serving dishes, they look pretty good! The cranberry sauce melded with the apples to give them a nice rich color, and the whole cranberries and raisins added to the visual interest of this dessert. I did not like the look of those cooked raisins though! I also felt that the apple compote was much too tart. I would have preferred it to be much sweeter. Aaron did like this apple compote, although it wasn’t his favorite apple dessert.

We hope you enjoy this warm apple compote as September gets cooler!