January 18, 2010

I Raise My Glass to You, Marjorie!

Mondays. The “pit” of the week. The hardest day to write a blog by far! The creative juices are stilted because most of my brains energy is being used up to dwell on the weekend – and how I wish it was still Saturday. I envy those (you know who you are) with the flexibility to sleep in on Mondays. One good thing – many holidays fall on a Monday. Oh how this brings joy to my life!

In other, extremely unrelated news, I’m happy to inform you – the whole world – that I’m becoming quite the little chef. To my astonishing surprise, my Christmas stocking beheld a Chapters gift card. Lo and behold, I was able to find a Betty Crocker cookbook to spend that plastic money on. What a find! Not only does it inform me on entertaining basics, but the recipes that are held within its shiny pages are delectable, and effortless.

We are having a bake sale at work to raise money for Haiti, and I volunteered to bring some baked goods in. While I relish in the idea of helping people in Haiti, it was also a perfect excuse to try out a recipe from my new cookbook. The recipe selected? Lemon Squares. Apparently these are difficult to make. My mom informed me that even with the greatest of recipes, they usually only turn out 1 in 3 times. Well let me tell you ladies (and men, if you care) I’m in love with this recipe. I admit, I’ve made it only once - I’ll let you know if this still rings true after my third try. I was afraid that when I attempted to remove them from the pan they would fall to bits. False. They looked breathtaking. Especially considering it was my first time making squares of ANY sort.

Now to give you some history to base your new found love for Betty Crocker on. Get ready for your hearts to be dashed on the rocks – she wasn’t real. I know. Now as you’re picking up the pieces of your shattered heart, let me fill you in. Betty Crocker was an icon trademarked by General Mills. The name was established in order to give a “personal feel” to the product. Why the name Betty? Well, apparently it was viewed as the, wait for it, “ALL-AMERICAN cheery name”. And the last name stems from a director who was working for General Mills at the time. So who was creating all these gourmet recipes? Marjorie Child Husted was the face behind the name. Poor lady – apparently Marjorie wasn’t cheery enough of a name to base an entire cooking brand on.

Well, Marjorie, whoever you are, I raise my glass to you! You’ve changed my life. Thanks for the foolproof lemon square recipe!

2 comments:

mom said...

TO MARJORIE!!!!
And who says Betty is a better name?? :o)
Maybe they should have used Julia as the name!!!

Love you LG
mom

Julie W. said...

Those were the best lemon bars I've ever had! I look forward to future treats that you plan to regularly bake for me ;)

 

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