Weekend Cooking #14: Victory through Snap, Crackle and Pop

The story goes that in or around 1939, Mildred Day, an employee of the Kellogg’s company, and her friend Malitta Jensen, were asked to develop something using Campfire Marshmallows for a fundraiser for a group of Camp Fire Girls. They came up with the now iconic Rice Krispies Marshmallow Squares recipe.

Rice Krispie Squares turned out to be such a favorite that the Kellogg’s company decided to market them. The ad and recipe appeared in all kinds of magazines and journals. Life magazine ran the ad regularly, as did McCall’s, Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping. But it could also be found in The Locomotive Engineers Journal, The Girl’s Daily Life and The Journal of Home Economics, among others. 

Ads also ran promoting Rice Krispies Marshmallow Squares for holidays such a Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Once the US entered World War II, these treats became a favorite item of families sending packages to loved oned serving in the Armed Forces and these sweet, gooey confections are often remembered in war time memories. To wit:

“Mail call always brought the men back to sanity, and he [Elvin Crandell] looked forward to the rice-crispy treats Marjorie frequently mailed to him.” in From the Battle Front to the Home Front by Kay B. Hall, page 167.

“A baby in the house also meant extra powdered eggs. They were delicious. Along with powdered chocolate, all kinds of good things could be made with them, such as chocolate Rice Krispie squares.” in On the Home Front: Growing up in Wartime England by Ann Stalcup, page 54.

“Families frequently…packed nonperishable items, such as Kellogg’s Rich Krispies Marshmallow Treats, first advertised in 1940, to send to family members not able to attend [family festivities] in World War II and the Postwar Yeats in America by William H. Young and Nancy K. Young, page 343.

Rice Krispies Marshmallow Squares were an ideal treat during the war, since eating cereal was always encouraged for its nutritional value, an advertising ploy aimed at making mothers happy. But, more importantly, there was always that nifty prize you could send for with enough box tops and a little money, an advertising ploy aimed at kids. And, best of all, marshmallows were never rationed and you could make these rice treats with butter substitutes.

Naturally, when I discovered that these treats were and are still being sent to loved one serving in the Armed Forces, I thought This is great. It meant I could whip up a batch and send them to my daughter in China, who was thrilled when I told her about this plan.

Here, then, is the original recipe for anyone who may not have

3 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 10oz package (about 40) marshmallows or 4 cups of miniature marshmallows
6 cups of Rice Krispies

Directions:

1- In a large saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Add the marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2- Add the Rice Krispies and stir until well coated.

3- Using a buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into a 13X9X2 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cool. Cut into 2 inch squares.

Microwave Directions:

In a microwave-safe bowl heat the butter and marshmallows on HIGH of r3 minutes, stirring after 2 minutes. Stir until smooth.

Follow steps 2 and 3 above.

This basic recipe can be varied almost any way you can think of. You can add peanut butter, Nutella, chocolate chips or nuts to name just a few variations.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post at Beth Fish Reads

Booking Through Thursday: What’s the hardest/most challenging book you’ve ever read?

I know this is a day late, but I liked the question this week and decided to answer it. This week Booking Through Thursday asked the following:

What’s the hardest/most challenging book you’ve ever read? Was it worth the effort? Did you read it by choice or was it an assignment/obligation?

The most challenging book I have ever read is Anna Karenina.  In 2004, it was an Oprah selection for summer reading and I thought I would give it a go.  But there is a section in this book about mowing that I just could not get through.  I read four other novels while I plowed through the mowing chapter.  But in the end, it was totally worth the effort and I was glad I had actually read every single word of Anna Karenina. 

And if anyone one wants to read it, Oprah still has a lot of value information up on Oprah's Book Club for understanding this book.

At the Firefly Gate by Linda Newbery

At the Firefly Gate is a simple romantic ghost story that seamlessly connects past and present, and age and youth together.

Henry, 11, is not happy when his parents move from London to the village of Crickford St. Thomas. His first night there, he sees a man standing at the garden gate, smoking a cigarette and with a cloud of fireflies flying around him, appearing to look straight at Henry.

The next day Henry and his parents are invited to tea by their neighbor Pat, whose daughter Grace is a little older than Henry. Also living there is Dottie, Pat’s elderly aunt. Henry and Dottie immediately feel the strangest connection to each other, despite their age difference.

That night, Henry dreams that he is at a mobile café, buying doughnuts and coffee, helped by a pretty girl who was flirting with him. And he knew the guy with him was his best friend, Rusty Dobbs. Yet, nothing about the dream made sense to him and, despite its vividness it slips away from him when he wakes up.

Henry begins to settle into his new surroundings. He is often invited to Pat’s home for tea and becomes friendlier with Dottie, bonding with her over games of Scrabble. All that spoils this is Grace telling him that Dottie is dying.

Meanwhile, Henry meets and becomes friends with Simon, who he will be going to school with. One hot Sunday, Henry and Simon go over the stream to cool off. They get lost along the way and discover an old, long abandoned airfield, which Simon recognizes as the one where his great-granddad was a pilot during World War II. He tells Henry the story about how his great granddad was in sick bay the night his entire crew went on a mission over Germany and never came back. Henry is stunned to learn that Simon’s great granddad’s name is Rusty Dobbs.

The past and present continue to overlap in Henry’s life, even as carves out a spot for himself in Crickford, making new friends and adjusting to life there. Dottie finally clarifies the identity of the man, explaining that he was also named Henry, a navigator in the RAF and best friends with Rusty Dobbs. He was also the love of her life and, after he didn’t return from the mission that saved Rusty’s life, she never was interested in marrying anyone else.

Newbery’s well developed Henry is a sweet, sensitive character, a rather ordinary boy who suddenly has this extraordinary experience. As pieces to the puzzle of the past present themselves, Henry increasingly becomes more determined to figure it all out. Dottie’s mind is still that of a feisty girl, even as she is physically limited simply by her age. She seems to bring out a confidence in Henry that wasn’t apparent before, acting as a catalyst for Henry’s ‘coming of age.’ Even sullen, angry Grace is well-drawn in her desire to become an RAF pilot against all the odds.

Though I thought the story started out rather slowly and with just a touch of confusion, in the end I enjoyed it very much. I think Linda Newbery has written a very nice refreshing book about friendship between generations that is unusual in books for young readers, where so often these age groups are at odds with each other instead.

The Book Cover: The cover of a book matters and can often influence a reader's decision about reading it.  In this case I think the cover is quite lovely.  The trouble is that on the book I read the details are so dark are hard to make out.  I made the picture of the cover a little brighter with some finagling so that the details are somewhat clearer.  Illustrators work hard on covers and they should be appreciated.  The artwork for At the Firefly Gate was done by Jess Meserve. 

This book is recommended for readers age 9-12.
This book was borrowed from the Children’s Center at 42nd Street of the NYPL

At the Firefly Gate
Linda Newbery
2004
David Pickling imprint of Random House Children’s Books
152 Pages

Irena’s Jars of Secrets by Marcia Vaughan

Marcia Vaughan's book, Irena's Jars of Secrets, is an informative look at the life of a brave, young resistance worker in the face of great danger.

Irena Sendler was a pretty young girl living in Warsaw, Poland when the Nazis invaded her country. Late in 1940, they forced Warsaw’s more than 400,000 Jews into some crowded, run down buildings, separated from the rest of that city by a 7 foot brick wall the Nazis had built, where they began their fight for survival in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Irena Sendler, a young social worker, and the daughter of a physician who had been willing to treat poor Jews during a Typhus outbreak years earlier, decided to follow in her father's footsteps and try to help ease the suffering of the Jews behind the wall.

Against this background, Vaughan tells the story of this remarkable young woman who risked her own life over and over to try to save others. By now, most of us know about Irena smuggling activities – bringing clothing, food and medical supplies into the ghetto, and sneaking children out and to safety. To keep track of the children, whose names had to be changed so they could pass as Christians, she wrote down their real name and their false identity and buried them in jars in the hope that they could some day be reunited with their families.

Irena’s smuggling activities came to an end when she was betrayed to the Gestapo in 1943. She was sentenced to death but, despite being tortured, never betrayed any her secrets, including the location of the jars that had the potential to destroy so many lives in the hands of the Nazis.

Irena Sendler as a young girl

Vaughan’s biography about Irena Sendler is presented in very accessible language, detailing how she began her work on her own, and later joining Zegota, a secret organization for helping Jews. She also includes some personalized narratives of Jews deciding to send their child into the unknown with Irena, rather than face deportation. Vaughan gives a real sense of the despair, desperation and even the ambivalence these parents must have felt about turning their children over to Irena without a real guarantee of their safety.

The narrative is enhanced by the excellent oil paintings of illustrator Ron Mazellan throughout the book. Mazellan paintings reflect the dark uncertain times that people experienced under the Nazis. Yet, for all their emotional content, the paintings are done in a kind of soft focus, powerful without being frightening and detracting from the narrative.

Irena’s Jars of Secrets is an excellent addition to the ever growing body of Holocaust literature for younger readers. I think it is important that children know there were some people acting unselfishly and courageously amid so much cruelty. This important story is a must read for anyone teaching or just interested in the Holocaust.

This book is recommended for readers age 6-11
This book was a received as an E-ARC from Netgalley.com

Yad Vashem named Irena as one of The Righteous Among The Nations in 1965

Irena Sendler's obituary from the New York Times
(I had a teacher in junior high who told us to always read the obits in the newspaper because you can learn so much about a person there and it has really been true, which is why I sometimes include them)

Non-Fiction Monday is hosted this week by Apple with Many Seeds

Irena's Jars of Secrets
Marcia Vaughan
Lee & Low
Available 11/1/2011
40 Pages

Library Loot – OWSLibrary



I went to the library on Thursday. Not usually a very remarkable adventure, except this week I took my new ‘library card’ and boarded a No 5 Subway to go down to Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan to see the newest library in town. I had heard so much about it that my curiosity was really peaked.

The library is located on the north-east corner of the park, along Liberty Street. It is fairly organized, utilizing a vast array of plastic containers instead of shelves and, as you can see, there are lots of people browsing about, looking for books.

My library loot consisted of only one book:

I also kind of wanted that copy of Twilight you can see in the photo, but passed it up. Now, I am rather sorry. The weirdest part was just taking Where the Wild Things Are, walking away and no one running after me yelling stop thief at the top of there lungs. I had this momentary channeling of Liesel from The Book Thief until I reminded myself I wasn’t stealing.

Besides the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters, there are also lots of tourists, cops, World Trade Center workers on lunch break, and others milling about the park in general. But among the protesters’ there is some pretty impressive organization. I include a few photos for your consideration:

The People’s Library

My Photos

The People’s Kitchen

Photo from The Christian Post (because theirs was better than mine)

The People’s Media Center

Photo from New York Review of Books (because theirs was better than mine)

The People’s First Aid Center

My Photo

Coconut Bubble Tea

I did get hungry while I was in Zuccotti Park. How could you not? The delicious smells of food within the park and smells of the vendors surrounding the park were overpowering. So, I admit I spent $4.00 on a delicious Coconut Bubble Tea from a vendor after deciding the free food in the park should be left for the protesters.

Whether you agree with the protesters or not, you have to admit this was perhaps a one of a kind visit to the library.

You can find out more about the Occupy Wall Street Library at these websites:
The Peoples Library Blog

Twitter
@OSWLibrary

The People's Library Catalogue at
LibraryThing

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!