Every time we drive to Wabasha we still mourn the closing of the Anderson House. We called our friends in Winona on a Sunday a year ago to suggest a frequent rendezvous at the Anderson House for brunch. “Sorry, but I just read in the Winona paper that the Anderson House is closed as of Thursday,” was the reply. What a pity.
Many of you know the Anderson House as the “Cat House” in Wabasha—because of the cats they keep to rent out to their guests who want them. It was also the oldest continuously run hotel in Minnesota—actually, west of the Mississippi—built in 1856 by B. F. Hurd and purchased in 1896 by the Anderson Family. But no longer.
The Andersons held the inn for four generations, but when the last one left the hotel was run down and going badly. A nephew of the family came in and bought the hotel, but was not successful. It then went into the hands of Teresa and Michael Smith in 2004 and they spruced it up, called it a bed-and-breakfast and began serving some of the delicious breads, pastries and main dishes for which Grandma Anderson and her progeny had been famous.
In 1948 Jeanne Hall and Belle Anderson Ebner, daughter and granddaughter of Grandma Anderson who bought the hotel in 1896 wrote a cookbook called “500 Recipes by Request from Mother Anderson’s Famous Dutch Kitchens.” The cookbook was followed by “500 More Recipes by Request…” In the prologue of the second book, Hall writes,
“Ten years ago we joyously put together Five Hundred Recipes By Request from Grandma Anderson’s Dutch Kitchens and happily watched it travel from one end of the United States to the other. While it wasn’t intended that way, the book served as the most lucrative piece of advertising ever put out by the Hotel. It brought new guests by the hundreds.
There is something about the old, quiet air of charm and friendliness at the Anderson Hotel that makes personal friends out of customers. We are so obviously a family hotel in a crossroads country town fortunately located in the Hiawatha Valley which is, and always will be, one of the most beautiful locations in the world! Highway 61 from Minneapolis and St. Paul to La Crosse, Wisconsin is positively unexcelled for breath-taking beauty; literally miles and miles of highway carved out of sheer bluffs and swooping down into picturesque valleys along the Mississippi River and enormous Lake Pepin. This is camera country; when Grandma Anderson came from Pennsylvania, she chose her location well.”
Another excerpt from the Foreword:
If I had Aladdin’s Lamp… I’d say,…Let me be young again in {Grandmas’s} wonderful house on the banks of the Mississippi River with a glorious view of Wisconsin jungle and the majestic roll of purple bluffs beyond. In her house in the early morning, I used to smell, simultaneously through my bedroom window, the fragrance of white lilacs and the spicy aroma of Grandma’s marvelous little fruit doughnuts.
In latter years the Anderson House acquired two more claims to fame. One of the inn’s cats starred in a 1997 children’s book, “Blumpoe The Grumpoe Meets Arnold The Cat” by Howie Schneider in which a curmudgeonly guest gets a life lesson from the cat who keeps him company. Additionally, there have been three “ghost buster” investigations which resulted in benign spirits, if any.
Wabasha and area population will surely miss this icon of the Mississippi, as will the 20 former employees.
A smattering of the mouth-watering recipes in the two cookbooks are as follows: Amsterdam Cheese Bread, Orange coffee cake, Pennsylvania Dutch Ham Pot-pie, stewed Chicken and Southern Dumplings, the Best Pineapple Dessert in the World, $1,000.00 Maine Sardine Salad Dressing (an original family recipe that won the thousand dollar first prize in a recipe contest sponsored by the Maine Sardine Industry in 1953).
Histulas (Little Fruit Doughnuts)
½ cup sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten
½ cup sour milk
½ tsp. soda
2 cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup finely chopped pecans
¼ cup finely chopped raisins
Grated rind of 1 orange
¼ cup finely chopped dates
2 Tbsp. orange juice sugar
Sugar
Fat for deep frying
Combine the sugar and egg yolks. Mix the milk and soda together. Add to the egg mixture. Sift the flour and salt together and add. Stir in the pecans, raisins, orange rind, and dates. Add the orange juice. Drop from a teaspoon into hot fat. Fry until light brown and turn while cooking. Remove from the fat and drain on absorbent paper. Sprinkle with sugar. Makes two dozen little balls. (Histulas should be quite small, only slightly larger than the hole in an ordinary doughnut. It helps to drop the amount spooned out of the dough briefly into flour. Then each ball can be molded a little by hand. The coating of flour keeps the grease from soaking in.)
Amsterdam Cheese Bread
1 ½ cups milk, scalded
½ cup shortening
¼ cup sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
2 yeast cakes (or 2 pkgs instant dry yeast)
9 cups sifted flour
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups grated American cheese (not processed)
Combine the milk, shortening, sugar, salt and one cup of the water. Let cool. Then add the yeast which as been dissolved in the remaining half cup of water. Add about half of the flour and the eggs; mix well. Add the balance of the flour. Blend in the cheese. Let the dough rise until double in bulk. Punch down, separate into three parts, and place in three greased bread pans. Let the dough rise again for about one hour. Bake in a moderate oven, 375 deg, for one hour. Makes three loaves.
Pennsylvania Dutch Ham Potpie
1 ham hock or 1 ½ –pound piece ham
2 quarts potatoes, cubed
1 quart onions, chopped
¼ tsp. pepper
Chopped parsley
Cook the ham in water to cover until tender, about one hour. Add more water to make two quarts of liquid, if necessary. Add the vegetables and then drop in, piece by piece, the Dough Squares, made according to the recipe below. Keep the broth boiling during the additions. Sprinkle with pepper and parsley. Cover tightly and simmer until the vegetables and dough are cooked, about ten minutes. Serves eight. (For a ham soup, cut the dough in ½-inch squares, cut the ham in small cubes, and omit the potatoes and onions.)
Dough Squares
1 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 egg or 2 egg yolks
¾ cup lukewarm water
3 ½ cups sifted flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Prepare a dough by adding the butter and egg to the lukewarm water. (Or substitute ham stock for the water and then omit the shortening.) Sift together one cup of the flour, the baking powder, and salt, and combine smoothly with the first mixture. Add more flour to make a rather stiff dough. Knead lightly on a floured board for a minute or two. Roll out 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 3-inch squares.
The Best Pineapple Dessert in the World
3 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
¾ cup sugar
Pineapple juice
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 can (9-oz) crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup heavy cream or evaporated milk, whipped
2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
Beat the egg yolks. Add the salt and one-half cup of the sugar. Add the pineapple juice, drained from the canned pineapple, and the lemon juice. Cook over hot but not boiling water until the mixture coats a spoon. Stir constantly. Remove from the heat and add the crushed pineapple. Cool. Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff. Fold into the pineapple mixture and add the whipped cream. Line the sides and bottom of the deep buttered freezing tray with half of the crumbs. Pour the custard mixture into the tray and cover with the remaining crumbs. Freeze four to six hours. Serves eight.
Thousand Dollar Salad Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup Maine sardines, well drained
½ cup parsley
1 Tbsp. tarragon vinegar
¼ cup celery
½ bar of Philadelphia cream cheese (4 oz.)
½ cup of milk
Put all ingredients into a blender. Blend thoroughly at high speed until all ingredients are liquefied. Refrigerate until used. If it thickens in storage, thin with milk. Serve on chilled greens with hard-boiled egg slices, tomato wedges and sliced celery.
Many of you know the Anderson House as the “Cat House” in Wabasha—because of the cats they keep to rent out to their guests who want them. It was also the oldest continuously run hotel in Minnesota—actually, west of the Mississippi—built in 1856 by B. F. Hurd and purchased in 1896 by the Anderson Family. But no longer.
The Andersons held the inn for four generations, but when the last one left the hotel was run down and going badly. A nephew of the family came in and bought the hotel, but was not successful. It then went into the hands of Teresa and Michael Smith in 2004 and they spruced it up, called it a bed-and-breakfast and began serving some of the delicious breads, pastries and main dishes for which Grandma Anderson and her progeny had been famous.
In 1948 Jeanne Hall and Belle Anderson Ebner, daughter and granddaughter of Grandma Anderson who bought the hotel in 1896 wrote a cookbook called “500 Recipes by Request from Mother Anderson’s Famous Dutch Kitchens.” The cookbook was followed by “500 More Recipes by Request…” In the prologue of the second book, Hall writes,
“Ten years ago we joyously put together Five Hundred Recipes By Request from Grandma Anderson’s Dutch Kitchens and happily watched it travel from one end of the United States to the other. While it wasn’t intended that way, the book served as the most lucrative piece of advertising ever put out by the Hotel. It brought new guests by the hundreds.
There is something about the old, quiet air of charm and friendliness at the Anderson Hotel that makes personal friends out of customers. We are so obviously a family hotel in a crossroads country town fortunately located in the Hiawatha Valley which is, and always will be, one of the most beautiful locations in the world! Highway 61 from Minneapolis and St. Paul to La Crosse, Wisconsin is positively unexcelled for breath-taking beauty; literally miles and miles of highway carved out of sheer bluffs and swooping down into picturesque valleys along the Mississippi River and enormous Lake Pepin. This is camera country; when Grandma Anderson came from Pennsylvania, she chose her location well.”
Another excerpt from the Foreword:
If I had Aladdin’s Lamp… I’d say,…Let me be young again in {Grandmas’s} wonderful house on the banks of the Mississippi River with a glorious view of Wisconsin jungle and the majestic roll of purple bluffs beyond. In her house in the early morning, I used to smell, simultaneously through my bedroom window, the fragrance of white lilacs and the spicy aroma of Grandma’s marvelous little fruit doughnuts.
In latter years the Anderson House acquired two more claims to fame. One of the inn’s cats starred in a 1997 children’s book, “Blumpoe The Grumpoe Meets Arnold The Cat” by Howie Schneider in which a curmudgeonly guest gets a life lesson from the cat who keeps him company. Additionally, there have been three “ghost buster” investigations which resulted in benign spirits, if any.
Wabasha and area population will surely miss this icon of the Mississippi, as will the 20 former employees.
A smattering of the mouth-watering recipes in the two cookbooks are as follows: Amsterdam Cheese Bread, Orange coffee cake, Pennsylvania Dutch Ham Pot-pie, stewed Chicken and Southern Dumplings, the Best Pineapple Dessert in the World, $1,000.00 Maine Sardine Salad Dressing (an original family recipe that won the thousand dollar first prize in a recipe contest sponsored by the Maine Sardine Industry in 1953).
Histulas (Little Fruit Doughnuts)
½ cup sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten
½ cup sour milk
½ tsp. soda
2 cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup finely chopped pecans
¼ cup finely chopped raisins
Grated rind of 1 orange
¼ cup finely chopped dates
2 Tbsp. orange juice sugar
Sugar
Fat for deep frying
Combine the sugar and egg yolks. Mix the milk and soda together. Add to the egg mixture. Sift the flour and salt together and add. Stir in the pecans, raisins, orange rind, and dates. Add the orange juice. Drop from a teaspoon into hot fat. Fry until light brown and turn while cooking. Remove from the fat and drain on absorbent paper. Sprinkle with sugar. Makes two dozen little balls. (Histulas should be quite small, only slightly larger than the hole in an ordinary doughnut. It helps to drop the amount spooned out of the dough briefly into flour. Then each ball can be molded a little by hand. The coating of flour keeps the grease from soaking in.)
Amsterdam Cheese Bread
1 ½ cups milk, scalded
½ cup shortening
¼ cup sugar
1 Tbsp. salt
1 ½ cups lukewarm water
2 yeast cakes (or 2 pkgs instant dry yeast)
9 cups sifted flour
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups grated American cheese (not processed)
Combine the milk, shortening, sugar, salt and one cup of the water. Let cool. Then add the yeast which as been dissolved in the remaining half cup of water. Add about half of the flour and the eggs; mix well. Add the balance of the flour. Blend in the cheese. Let the dough rise until double in bulk. Punch down, separate into three parts, and place in three greased bread pans. Let the dough rise again for about one hour. Bake in a moderate oven, 375 deg, for one hour. Makes three loaves.
Pennsylvania Dutch Ham Potpie
1 ham hock or 1 ½ –pound piece ham
2 quarts potatoes, cubed
1 quart onions, chopped
¼ tsp. pepper
Chopped parsley
Cook the ham in water to cover until tender, about one hour. Add more water to make two quarts of liquid, if necessary. Add the vegetables and then drop in, piece by piece, the Dough Squares, made according to the recipe below. Keep the broth boiling during the additions. Sprinkle with pepper and parsley. Cover tightly and simmer until the vegetables and dough are cooked, about ten minutes. Serves eight. (For a ham soup, cut the dough in ½-inch squares, cut the ham in small cubes, and omit the potatoes and onions.)
Dough Squares
1 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 egg or 2 egg yolks
¾ cup lukewarm water
3 ½ cups sifted flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
Prepare a dough by adding the butter and egg to the lukewarm water. (Or substitute ham stock for the water and then omit the shortening.) Sift together one cup of the flour, the baking powder, and salt, and combine smoothly with the first mixture. Add more flour to make a rather stiff dough. Knead lightly on a floured board for a minute or two. Roll out 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 3-inch squares.
The Best Pineapple Dessert in the World
3 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
¾ cup sugar
Pineapple juice
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 can (9-oz) crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup heavy cream or evaporated milk, whipped
2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
Beat the egg yolks. Add the salt and one-half cup of the sugar. Add the pineapple juice, drained from the canned pineapple, and the lemon juice. Cook over hot but not boiling water until the mixture coats a spoon. Stir constantly. Remove from the heat and add the crushed pineapple. Cool. Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff. Fold into the pineapple mixture and add the whipped cream. Line the sides and bottom of the deep buttered freezing tray with half of the crumbs. Pour the custard mixture into the tray and cover with the remaining crumbs. Freeze four to six hours. Serves eight.
Thousand Dollar Salad Dressing
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup Maine sardines, well drained
½ cup parsley
1 Tbsp. tarragon vinegar
¼ cup celery
½ bar of Philadelphia cream cheese (4 oz.)
½ cup of milk
Put all ingredients into a blender. Blend thoroughly at high speed until all ingredients are liquefied. Refrigerate until used. If it thickens in storage, thin with milk. Serve on chilled greens with hard-boiled egg slices, tomato wedges and sliced celery.
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