Minnesota Cooking – I Tried Recipes from a 1980s Cookbook!
Minnesota cooking is on the menu this week! I’m trying three cozy vintage recipes.
Recipes From Minnesota…With Love (1981)
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GERMAN POTATO SOUP (pg 45)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
2c grated cooked potatoes
2c mlik
1/2c chopped ham or bacon
salt and pepper
1 large egg yolk
Brown onion and garlic in butter until onion is golden. Add flour, stirring until smooth. Add potatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Add ham or bacon. Salt and pepper to taste (extra pepper brings out taste). Add egg yolk, stirring until creamy and soup is heated through.
CHEDDAR SPINACH PIE (pg 78)
4 eggs, beaten
1c milk
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper
2c shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp flour
10oz frozen spinach, cooked and drained
Combine eggs, milk, and seasonings; mix well. Toss cheese with flour; add to eggs. Stir in spinach. Pour into greased 9″ pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.
FAVORITE APPLE COOKIES (pg 154)
3Tbsp butter
1/2c brown sugar
1/4c honey
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
1/2c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2c rolled oats
3 medium apples, peeled and chopped
1c walnuts, chopped
3/4c chopped dates
Blend butter, brown sugar, honey, egg, and water until smooth. Gradually stir in dry ingredients. Stir in apples, walnuts, and dates. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
PLEASE NOTE – The recipe as it appears in the book (and above) does not work very well. Make at your own risk.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:10 German Potato Soup
8:33 Cheddar Spinach Pie
13:43 Favorite Apple Cookies
20:57 Cookbook Chat – Recipes From Minnesota…With Love (1981)
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49 Comments
We had that cookbook at our cabin. So fun.
That potato soup looks delicious and very hearty. I'd definitely put the rivels in! I'm wondering how some corn would do in there, too.
Thanks Anna. That cookie recipe reminds me of something from church community cookbook where the contributor intentionally gives a wrong ingredient or leaves one out so your version doesn't come out as good as theirs. Like using rolled osts instead of quick cooking oats, or a tablespoon less of butter, etc. My cousin did that with a zuchinni bread recipe. Left out the 2 tablespoons of milk.😮
The problem with the cookies was using a baking mat and not greasing the baking pan. They would have come off a lot easier and been a bit smoother texture .
Your cookies I think should be more like granola bars??
Yes, and not many people realize you need to clean an induction top with a microfiber cloth…
Another fast way to make the potato soup would be the "Simply Potatoes" refrigerated hash browns – no defrosting.
Could you replace the spinach in the pie with broccoli?
Loved your brutal honesty about the cookies.
And a personal comment which sounds kind of rude, but is not intended that way. I grew up in North Dakota and now live in Minnesota. And I have always found it funny that people think Ohio is in the Midwest. The only place it's west of is Pennsylvania. I am aware that the description probably originated in the days when it seemed like it was actually in the middle of the country, but it always makes me chuckle.
I always thought something had to be 99 yrs old to be Vintage, but Google says 20 yrs is vintage. -Barbara
German potato soup looks amazing
I LOVE that the apple cookies didn't turn out. Far more than once, I've followed a recipe religiously and ended up with a dud. I'm a reluctant cook and tend to blame myself. It made my heart sing that someone so diligent and so good at this met with a dud, too!
I've never had a bad potato soup!!
Love your dinosaur top.
That soup with sausage!!!
Appreciate your honesty, Anna. Not every recipe goes to 11!
I use a little mustard in my potato soup. And bread crumbs in the pie plate.
Would the cookies make a better bar cookie?
I didn't grow up in MN but lived there for 33 years. I lived in WI before that, about 5 hours away. The Swedish influence was really new to me.
Former Minneapolitan for many decades. I had that cookbook and have a vague recollection of enjoying recipes from it. That's my favorite type of cookbook. Got rid of lots of books prior to moving West in the 90s and that appears to have been one of them, unfortunately. Been gravitating back to those kinds of recipes recently.
I knew I was vintage when I saw my childhood phone, clear outside with brightly colored electronics, in a vintage store 😂
Apples are monster sized today compared to the 80's so measurements probably off as you said. Cookies looked "healthy" and low fat, not tasty. Andt they were so weirdly textured as you described. Ya win some, ya lose some. Next…!
I would love a video where you talk about the difference between the induction cooktop and I'm assuming gas cooktop. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the differences.
Thank you so much for sharing. Everything looks delicious. I really needed a new cookie recipe. Especially Apple 🍎
Hi Anna I appreciate that you are honest about the cookie, it happens some time. I wonder if the German Potato soup was made in the war era and they used the egg in it as protein because meat was scarce? I definitely have to try that❤
Thank you for doing a Minnesota cookbook! We appreciate the love and testing those cookies so we don’t have to. 😅
😂 I'm from Minnesota. I'm older than you. My mom had that cookbook!
The spinach and egg dish reminds me of a quiche my mom would make when I was a kid in the '80's. Except she never shared it. Literally, she always told my sister and I we wouldn't like it and would make something else for us. I grew up thinking I didn't like quiche because my mom always told me I didn't like it. That was until I took a cooking class in high school and we made quiche, I liked it.
My laundry room is in my basement. It is neither small nor warm. But thanks for another great video.
"Drained" is not a strong enough word for using spinach in a recipe. "Squeezed dry" is the best way to deal with spinach, in a towel or in your fist and laid out on a paper towel. I often feel guilty about wasting that spinach water. Lost nutrients. Sigh. 😔
As a German – I have never heard of this kind of patato soup. But I will try it out most definitely – only calling it in my mind "The Minnesota Way of Cooking"! 😋
Raw fruit is usually not a good idea for baking – too much water. I bet it would work better with some dried apples instead, or pre-cooked apples, or apple sauce. Or really, just find a different recipe as mentioned. 😅 I suspect that some recipes that make it into cook books and websites don't actually get tested for quality control.
Soup and spinach pie sound good. But those cookies – not nearly enough dough to hold all that oats, apples, dates and nuts together. Never mind that it is almost a kitchen sin to make a baked good with apples and not add cinnamon or apple pie spice mix. I'd just take my fav. oatmeal cookie, add some sour cream and extra flour along with chopped apples and spices.
I always save your videos for bedtime so I have incentive to go to bed earlier (gotta get up early for work!) since I get to watch them in the cozy darkness with my cats.
🦖😀
That Dino sweatshirt is adorable!!
I grew up in Michigan and am 2 years older than you. So many of these recipes are extremely familiar to me….. I now live in Wyoming and people here never really seemed to cook like this. You help my homesickness. ❤
That potato soup looks delicious but I would skip the bacon and season with some Mace. I love bacon, but don't like bacon IN things. Weird, right?
1982 here… but it was only 25 years ago 😁😁
I'm originally from Minnesota so I was curious what you'd pick – I've had none of these recipes or variants of them, haha. I did, however, make a big pot of potato soup for this week's dinners today. What timing. I don't use recipes for soup, but I remember my mom using something from Watkins as a base. Hmmm.
Thanks!
Being from Minnesota, I loved that you cooked from a book of Minnesota recipes. I have this book but don't think I've cooked from it…..I may have cooked a hotdish from it years ago, but I'm getting it out again to find a good recipe to make. Need I say, I will NOT be trying the apple cookie recipe. It almost sounds like the author left out an ingredient or something?? Nevertheless, thanks for your honesty on the outcome! Love your channel!!!
Having been born in the 80s, I don't think these feel like recipes that were invented in the 80s. They feel like 50s recipes that were still being cooked in the 80s.
Thank you for being a calm and consistent lifeline in this crazy chaotic world. PS: I was born in MN so loving this homage!
I used to have that cookbook! But I have to say, the Minnesota Heritage Cookbook is much better.
As a Minnesotan this cookbook has been a staple in my family and friends kitchens for decades. 1980s baby here! ❤ thanks Anna for featuring it!
Another name for the spinach cheese dish is an "impossible quiche". I make them all the time with various veggies (sauteed onions and a clove of garlic are a great addition too). The added flour makes a mock crust, rather than a pastry crust, and is my favorite kind.
as someone from michigan… what accent
For the apple cookies, I think if you swap out the apples for a banana (split lengthwise), substitute the oats with crushed oreos, change the dates to chocolate syrup, keep the chopped walnuts but switch out the rest of the ingredients for ice cream, and top it with whipped cream, it'd probably turn out pretty good 🙃
That cookie recipe was weird. It should have a stick of butter, 1 cup each flour & oats, and less add-ins. The water was an odd addition. Baking is a science and they failed!
Your beautiful resistance is a testament to your character.
♥Minnesota❤