Category Archives: Recipes

Lynn’s Recipes: Bessie’s Chocolate Cake

We’ve been putting together a collection of recipes for foods that have appeared in the comic over the years, or in the calendars we’ve published in years past. You can see the whole series of recipes here. This one is a Johnston family recipe for a from-scratch chocolate cake. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

¼ cup cocoa
1 cup flour
½ cup water
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups icing sugar
1 lightly beaten egg
3 tbsps.of hot water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine cocoa, water, and milk in sauce pan and whisk until smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from stove and add butter (stir until melted). Add sugar, vanilla, and egg. Whisk until smooth.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add to chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth. Pour batter into a lightly greased 8 inch cake pan and bake for 25 minutes.

To make icing, mix together icing sugar, cocoa, and water until smooth. Carefully spread over HOT cake (fresh from the oven ). Allow cake to cool before serving.

I rarely eat chocolate cake, but this one’s too good to resist.

Lynn’s Recipes: Crispy Chicken Bake

We’ve been collecting recipes from Lynn’s family’s collection, for your enjoyment. Some of these have been featured in the comic strip, and others appeared in a wall calendar we published a few years ago. You can find the whole series here. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • Salt and pepper
  • Chicken parts (bone in)
  • 1 tsp of oregano, basil, parsley, onion powder, paprika, garlic powder
  • 1 cup bread crumbs, crushed crackers or croutons
  • 1 cup parmesan cheese
  • Chopped spinach
  • Butter
  • Italian salad dressing

Instructions

  1. Beat eggs with salt and pepper. Coat chicken with egg mix.
  2. Mix together spices, bread crumbs, and cheese. Coat chicken in spice mixture and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle with spinach and remaining crumb coating. Drizzle with butter and salad dressing.
  3. Bake at 350°

Lynn’s Recipes: Mom Ridgway’s Cherry Loaf Cake

We’ve been collecting recipes from Lynn’s family’s collection, for your enjoyment. This special cherry cake was featured in this Sunday strip (and check out Lynn’s note about how her Mom turned the tables on her one day, making Lynn bake it herself!)

You can find the whole recipe series here. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups flour
2 tsps. baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup milk
3 egg whites stiffly beaten
1 cup maraschino cherries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Add nutmeg.
In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Mix until light
and fluffy.
Using an egg beater, add alternately 1 ¼ cup of flour mixture with milk and beat until smooth.
Fold in egg whites.
Sprinkle ½ of remaining flour mixture over batter, then add cherries. Sprinkle remaining flour
over cherries (This keeps them from sticking together) and mix well.
Place batter in a lightly greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or less (until a tooth pick comes
out clean). Don’t over bake.
Warning: When cooled, this cake disappears almost immediately.

Ribbon Jello Recipe – a Fave of Lynn’s

For Lynn’s recent birthday, her daughter, Katie, made her a batch of ribbon Jello, pictured. We thought we’d share the recipe (below):

Ribbon Jello

Ingredients:

  • 4 packages (3 oz) Jello, for example Orange, Lemon, Lime and Strawberry
  • 6 envelopes Knox gelatin
  • 1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk
  • 4 ¾ cups boiling water
  • ¼ cup water
  • Pam spray

Prepare Milk Mixture:

Prepare milk mixture first and cool:

  1. Dissolve 2 envelopes of Knox gelatin in ¼ cup cold water
  2. Add ¾ cups boiling water, stir until gelatin has dissolved
  3. Combine with 1 can condensed milk, divide into 3 parts and cool. Make sure this stays liquid; if it starts to jell, but the bowl of milk mixture into a bath of hot water and stir until it’s liquid

Prepare Jello:

  1. Mix each box of Jello separately with 1 envelope of Knox gelatin
  2. Add 1 cup boiling water to each Jello mixture, stir constantly until gelatin dissolves. Keep the Jello mixtures liquid as well.

Making the Ribbon:

  1. Pour 1 flavour of Jello into a 9″ x 13″ (sprayed with Pam) pan and refrigerate for 15 minutes
  2. Pour 1 part milk mixture over first layer of Jello. Refrigerate for 15 minutes
  3. Pour on another layer of Jello mixture, alternate with milk mixture. Repeat, refrigerating for 15 minutes after each layer of Jello. (Example: orange, milk, lime, milk, lemon, milk, strawberry)
  4. Serve in diamond-shaped pieces: