Mimsy Were the Borogoves

Food: Recipes, cookbook reviews, food notes, and restaurant reviews. Unless otherwise noted, I have personally tried each recipe that gets its own page, but not necessarily recipes listed as part of a cookbook review.

Lemon Tea Bread from O’Donnell Angel Food Cookbook

Jerry Stratton, July 28, 2015

This cookbook from the O’Donnell Angel Flight of Louisiana Tech University is a real find, with authentic seventies recipes straight out of your mother’s pot lucks. Have some lemon tea bread from the Air Force southern command!

[print]

Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1½ cups flour
  • dash of salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ teaspoon lemon extract
  • ½ cup chopped nuts
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 lemon

Steps

  1. Cream butter with 1 cup sugar.
  2. Beat in eggs.
  3. Sift flour with baking powder and salt.
  4. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk.
  5. Blend in nuts, lemon extract, and grated rind of lemon.
  6. Bake in well-greased, lightly-floured 9x5-inch loaf pan for 45-60 minutes.
  7. Cool in pan for 10 minutes.
  8. Combine lemon juice and ½ cup of sugar, and pour over bread. Let stand for 30 minutes and remove from pan.
Angel Food cookbook cover: Cover to the hand-made O’Donnell Angel Flight Angel Food cookbook.; cookbooks; United States Air Force; USAF

I found this spiral-bound cookbook at the local Half Price Books annual warehouse sale. I almost didn’t pick it up, but the juxtaposition of the angel eating batter and the subtitle, A Collection of the greatest recipes from: the White House, Wives of Air Force Dignitaries and O’Donnell Angels, caused me to give it a once-through.

Angel Food was created and written by the General Emmett O’Donnell Angel Flight. We are a non-profit organization whose purposes are to support the Air Force, our 300th A.F.R.O.T.C. Detachment, our university, and our country.

This cookbook is a collection of the greatest recipes from the White House, from wives of Air Force Dignitaries, and from our O’Donnell Angels.

Special thanks go to Mrs. Mary Jane Lewis and to Lt. Gerry J. Kellner, whose ideas and help originated and inspired our cookbook.

Rosalyn Allen

I’m a sucker for hand-written cookbooks, and the recipes looked both basic and interesting—at least, once I could decipher the writing—including a Kentucky Derby Pie filled with chocolate but not mint right across from a Lemon Chiffon Pie.

It is filled with recipes such as might be found at pot lucks or get-togethers, such as Celestial Salad, Blond Brownies, Jello Salad, and Oriental Meatballs.

The Lemon Tea Bread I’ve reproduced here is the best I’ve had, and about as easy to make as you can get.

The “White House and Air Force dignitaries” recipes include Liver Deluxe from Mrs. Betty Ford, First Lady; Chicken Casserole from Mrs. W.A. Temple—wife of Major General William A. Temple, vice commander of the Eighth Air Force, based in Louisiana; and Crabmeat Appetizer and Shrimp a la Dino from Mrs. James M. Breedlove, wife of Major General James M. Breedlove, Commander of the U.S. Air Forces Southern Command. There are a few others who I don’t recognize, and can’t be sure about because everything is in handwriting!

This is an obscure book—it has no ISBN and an Internet search brings up only a handful of references—but if you happen to run across it, I’d recommend taking a look.

  1. <- Stuck Kitchen-Aid attachment
  2. Cookbook for Two ->