My Favorite Recipes: Meet Susan McGregor, San Francisco, and The White House Cook Book

Susan Huber McGregor and Dr. Dick Freeman, Colfax High School Class of 1965.

Susan McGregor was born and reared in Colfax, the daughter of the late Harold Huber and Janet Hoffman Huber. After graduating from Colfax High School, Susan left Colfax for court reporter school in San Francisco, began working as a court reporter and has lived there since.

A frequent visitor to Colfax, she has remained involved with Colfax friends and extended family and worked on her Colfax High School reunions as well as the St. John’s Academy Reunion in 2012. When she asked if students learn anything about the town’s namesake, Vice President Schulyer Colfax, friends promised to check with history teacher Ross Swan. Mr. Swan was curious, but knew little about Mr. Colfax.

Susan asked that Colfax’s story be shared: Schulyer Colfax was born several months after his father died of tuberculosis, and his sister died several months later. He had no secondary or college education, yet he became a successful journalist and businessman. Colfax was elected to Congress and became Speaker of the House, although, sadly, his wife died at that time.

When General Ulysses S. Grant was nominated by the Republican Party for President, Schulyer Colfax was nominated as his vice president to make up for Grant’s lack of political experience. They were elected in 1868, and Schulyer remarried. Before the 1872 election, Colfax was caught up in the Credit Mobelier Scandal which damaged his reputation.

After he was replaced on the ticket by Mr. Wilson, who was also involved in the scandal, Colfax became a popular lecturer, especially about his interactions with President Lincoln during the Civil War. He died of a heart attack after a mile walk between train stations on a bitterly cold morning in Minnesota. This is a brief glimpse into the life of the vice president for whom Colfax here and in other states were named.

Susan met her late husband, Bill McGregor, at a Chinese cooking class. No, he was not a member of the McGregor Company here; he was in management at US Steel. She signed up for the cooking class because she thought it would be fun to have someone else plan and shop for a meal after work, and she would learn to cook it. Bill signed up because he was a great cook and wanted to expand his repertoire.

Bill was widowed, so Susan gained two daughters when they married, and two grandsons are a great joy to her. She has taken each of them on a dream trip which they selected when they turned 12, to Australia with Joe and South Africa with Jake. Joe’s high school graduation trip last summer was to Hawaii.

Since then, other friends have copied the idea, which she recommends. Her Colfax friend, Susan Johnson Dunker, has just returned from a trip with her grandson Zack to New Zealand. Susan believes that it gives young people a chance to look at the world away from their own hometown and to look outside their own lives a bit.

The McGregor family has a gathering each year, and “Outlander” fans will note the importance of a gathering. Bill was the Laird, kilts were worn and a great time was had by all. Since Bill’s passing, Susan is the Dowager Lady McGregor, and Bill’s nephew and his wife are the Laird and Lady McGregor. The family enjoys the pretension of the whole event.

When they remodeled Susan’s classic San Francisco row house, Bill opted for the professional-style range and great cooking tools and gadgets. She enjoyed the process as well as the results.

Due to his love of cooking, Susan’s mother gave Bill one of her most prized possessions, “The White House Cook Book,” copyright 1928, graced by a photo of Mrs. Grace Goodhue Coolidge facing the inside title page. The book is dedicated to the wives of US presidents and was first copyrighted in 1887.

Including menus, household hints and remedies of all kinds as well as recipes, “The White House Cook Book” totals 588 pages of practical knowledge then, and a time capsule of upscale menus and recipes now.

About 10 years after Bill’s death, Susan reconnected with a friend and high school classmate, Dr. Dick Freeman, whose father, Dr. Bill Freeman, delivered her. They worked together on the St. John’s Academy reunion and visit each other in San Francisco and Hayden Lake. They enjoy that they have their student days in common, as well as many friends.

Menus in “The White House Cook Book” offer a glimpse of upper class meals at that time, as well as some dishes most of us have not tried and probably could not force upon our children or grandchildren.

“Christmas Day

Oysters on the Half Shell

Boiled White Fish Sauce Maitre d’Hotel

Roast Goose Apple Sauce

Mashed Potatoes Scalloped Potatoes

Grapefruit Salad

Christmas Plum Pudding Sauce

Vanilla Ice-cream

Delicate Cake Salted Almonds

Confectionary Fruits

Coffee”, p. 505.

Perhaps you need suggestions for the Fourth of July--

“Consomme

Boiled Cod With Lobster Sauce

Roast Lamb Mint Sauce

New Potatoes Boiled

Green Peas Corn on the Cob

Asparagus Salad

Maple Biscuits Vanilla Ice-cream

Coffee” p. 505.

A suggested breakfast menu of baked apples, hominy, ham omelet, potatoes a la Creme, toast and coffee does not sound too strange. But stewed dried apricots, boiled rice, fried pan fish, griddle cakes and coffee sounds a little unfamiliar. Breakfast featuring calves’ liver and bacon with broiled tomatoes would not go well in many homes now.

Suggested luncheon menus were a bit simpler. Remembering that most people did physical labor explains the size of the suggested breakfasts. Dinners were much larger than lunches, with a large variety of foods. These, of course, were aimed at the people who could afford to buy this kind of book and these foods.

The included menus for State dinners were much more elaborate, and many items were French recipes. This was the custom until about the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency. Since then, even State dinners have reflected a bit of the personality and preferences of the First Family and American specialties, although they are very formal.

To enjoy the contrast between recipes in this venerable old cookbook and modern recipes, side by side comparisons illustrate how differently Americans prepare similar dishes.

Recipes

Luncheon Asparagus

“Wash and scrape two bunches of asparagus. Tie in small bundles and cook in boiling salted water with the heads out for fifteen minutes. Put heads under water and cook for ten minutes. Drain and arrange on a hot platter. Remove strings.

“Melt four tablespoons butter and fry one cup soft bread crumbs to a pale straw color. Sprinkle over asparagus. Arrange slices of two hard-boiled eggs in a circle around asparagus, garnish with strips of canned pimento and serve at once.” p. 239.

Lemon Butter Asparagus

1/2 pound fresh asparagus

Salt

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Wash asparagus and trim off bottom of stems by about two inches. In a large skillet, bring about 1/2 inch of water to a rapid boil. Season the water with salt and add the asparagus. Cook the asparagus for 2-3 minutes or until bright green and just tender. Drain the asparagus and add butter to the skillet. Stir in the zest and juice. Return the drained asparagus to the skillet and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Recipe Courtesy of Food Network Kitchens

Spinach Greens

“Wash two pounds of spinach through warm water, first. Then wash through three or four cold waters. Pick each head over carefully and cut the root to loosen the leaves after washing.

“Shake out each handful of spinach as it is cleaned, but do not drain. Put in a kettle with a tight fitting lid and cook half an hour.

“Spinach cooked this way without any water except what clings to the leaves is always a dark rich green and very tender. All the juices of the vegetable are preserved and not cooked out into water that must be drained off.

“When the spinach is tender, remove the cover and cook down the juices, if there are any, or drain through a wire sieve. Season with one teaspoon salt, one-eighth teaspoon pepper and one tablespoon butter and chop.

“Reheat and serve in a hot vegetable dish. If the family will eat it this way, do not drain it, but season and chop and and serve on hot buttered toast with the juice poured over the whole. This will serve four persons.” p. 242.

Steamed Spinach with Lemon

9 ounces baby or trimmed regular spinach

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, plus lemon wedges for garnish

1/8 teaspoon coarse salt

Fill a medium saucepan with two inches of water, and fit with a steamer insert. Bring to a boil. Add spinach. Reduce to a simmer. Cover, and steam until spinach has wilted, about two minutes.

Transfer to a serving bowl. Toss with oil, lemon juice and salt. Garnish with lemon. Serve immediately.

marthastewart.com

Fried Chicken

“Wash and cut up a young chicken, wipe it dry, season with salt and pepper, dredge it with flour or dip each piece in beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs. Have in a frying pan two tablespoons each of butter and sweet lard made boiling hot. Lay in the chicken and fry brown on both sides. Then reduce heat, cover and fry slowly until tender. Take up, drain it and set aside in a covered dish. Stir into the gravy left, if not much, a large tablespoon of flour, make it smooth, add a cup of cream or milk, season with salt or pepper, boil up and pour over the chicken. Some like chopped parsley added to the gravy. Serve hot.

“If the chicken is old, put into a stew pan with a little water and simmer gently until tender; season with salt and pepper, dip in flour or cracker crumbs and egg, and fry as above. Use the broth the chicken was cooked in to make gravy, instead of the cream or milk, or an equal quantity of both.” p. 94.

Skillet Fried Chicken

1/2 cup Gold Medal all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3 to 3 1/2 pound cut-up chicken

In shallow dish, mix flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Coat chicken with flour mixture.

In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil (1/4 inch) over medium-high heat. Cook chicken in oil, skin sides down, about 10 minutes or until light brown on all sides; reduce heat to low. Turn chicken skin sides up.

Simmer uncovered about 20 minutes, without turning, until juice of chicken is clear when thickest part is cut to bone (170°F for breasts; 180°F for thighs and legs).

bettycrocker.com

If nothing else, buying cleaned greens and cut-up chickens really saves time for cooks. For cookbook collectors and fans, these old books capture a bit of history.