Picture of the Day ~ Leo's Ice Cream Parlor ~ Pilgrim Corn Souffle ~ Mike Hannan ~ National Banana Bread Day

Good 38º cloudy and not frozen morning! 

Picture of the Day ... perfect cop stop!! :o)

Interesting if you are in or were from the San Gabriel Valley. This is about a favorite ice cream parlor that was in Alhambra......

Leo's Ice Cream Parlor : Oh, the People Who Ate There

Question: What do Norman Rockwell and Mickey Cohen have in common? First of all, a little background on these two notables. Mickey Cohen was one of organized crimes' most well known characters of the 50's and 60's. He worked with Bugsy Siegel in establishing the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and directed many of the crime activities in Southern California during that era. He also lived in Los Angeles much of this time before being given a new address at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1961.

One profound commonality these two notables shared was... they knew their ice cream. And both adored Leo's Ice Cream Parlor here in Alhambra. "This is the best place to get ice cream ever", Cohen said according to Gary Wagner, the great grand nephew of Leo Anderson, the founder of Leo's Ice Cream Parlor. Wagner, who worked at Leo's added, "Mickey Cohen would pull up in a 1940's Lincoln and he one time tipped me 60 cents (which was nearly an hour's pay)." "He (Rockwell) said, 'Leo's made the best ice cream in Alhambra'," said Wagner on Norman Rockwell. Wagner noted that Rockwell liked the family atmosphere at Leo's and the artist even had urged Southern California tourists to visit Leo's in an article he wrote.

***I dated Gary Wagner when I was in high school. When I went to Leo's I got a free ice cream!! :o)

Hall of Fame baseball player, Ralph Kiner, and and Max West also enjoyed Leo's Ice Cream along with 1957 Indianapolis 500 winner, Sam Hanks, who grew up in Alhambra, Andy Crevolin, owner of Determine, the 1954 winner of the Kentucky Derby, and another native of Alhambra, drag racing legend, Mickey Thompson.

Leo's Ice Cream Parlor was an Alhambra institution from 1935 through 1965. It was a family run endeavor founded by Leo Anderson. At its height Leo's one time served 156 banana splits on a busy Sunday afternoon and prepared nearly as many root beer floats that same day.

Leo Anderson and his brother Elmer followed their employer west from Iowa in 1930. Both worked back in Iowa for a confectioners and ice cream operation that also came out west to Alhambra, Fosselman's. After a few years working there Leo Anderson would start his own ice cream establishment at 1492 W. Main Street in May of 1935. Elmer provided a loan for his brother to get started and he himself would work in his brother's business. As the operation gained notoriety, the name generally referred to by locals was shortened to Leo's. Many Alhambrans worked during their younger years at Leo's. Erny Henry, of Century 21 Realty here in Alhambra, worked at Leo's during his youth. "The first thing they made you do when you started working for Leo's was to clean the strawberries and peaches," said Henry. Tom Shea, from Alhambra's Chamber of Commerce, also worked at Leo's during his youth.

During this era Leo's would prepare 500 chocolate malts on a football Friday for Mark Keppel's various football teams and pep squads. As Wagner noted, "Leo's was a meeting place" for people from the entire western San Gabriel Valley. Leo Anderson passed away in 1964. Family members chose not to continue the family business and Leo's was closed in 1965.

http://reallivingimages.fnistools.com/Uploads/Teams/413480/ContentFiles/leosicecreamparlor.pdf

From Mr. Food....

Our Pilgrim Corn Souffle is a nod to the first Thanksgiving! Since this time of year is about being thankful for all our blessings, we figured that should include a timeless recipe we're sure will be devoured faster than any other side on the table. Whether you're a pilgrim or a member of the 21st century, you're gonna love this updated classic.

 

• 2 (15-1/4-ounce) cans whole kernel corn, drained
• 2 (15-ounce) cans creamed corn
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 4 eggs, beaten

 

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a 2-quart baking dish with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients; mix well. Pour into baking dish.
2.  Bake 75 to 80 minutes, or until center is set. Spoon up the goodness and enjoy.

Historically this date...

1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.

1896 – The Tootsie Roll is invented.

1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".

1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coastline near Santa Barbara.

1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.

1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war.

And births this date include...

1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor (d.2019)

1951 – Patricia Richardson, American actress

1965 – Michael Dell, American computer manufacturer

1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress

One year ago today, friend Mike Hannan was shot by the man police were pursuing, after an attempted carjacking from Roseburg.

The suspect ended up going down the road towards my friend Jennifer and Mike's house. Mike was out of their car getting mail from the mailbox when a suspect came up to him and shot him 5 times! He also hit Jennifer in the head with his gun and maced her. He shot a window out of Jennifer's car. This was an attempted carjacking.

The suspect drove off in the car he had been driving and was caught a short time later on Riverbanks road.

Mike is a former fire chief here in town. He is a DEAR friend and comes here to help me with yard work and projects.

He has recovered awesomely from the 5 gunshots! He is a miracle.

All I know. Nuff said. Happy Sunday. Ciao.

xo Sue Mom Bobo

February 23rd annually recognizes a well-known food holiday, National Banana Bread Day.

A moist, sweet, cake-like quick bread, banana bread is made with fully ripe, mashed bananas.  Some recipes call for yeast, and then the finished banana bread is sliced, toasted and spread with butter. 

With the popularization of baking soda and baking powder in the 1930s banana bread first became a standard feature of American cookbooks. It appeared in Pillsbury’s 1933 Balanced Recipes cookbook, too. Banana bread later gained further acceptance with the release of the original Chiquita Banana’s Recipe Book in 1950. 

Despite the banana’s arrival in the United States in the 1870s, it took a while before they appeared as an ingredient in desserts.

Early Banana Bread

One early recipe came from The Vienna Model Bakery. It advertised banana bread as something new in the April 21, 1893, edition of St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  A new restaurant/bakery chain owned by Gaff, Fleischmann & Company, The Viena Model Bakery was known for its baked goods and was likely one of the first to produce banana bread in the United States. The recipe was made with banana flour, which is made by drying strips of the fruit, then grinding it to a powder. This process had long been used in the West Indies.

In Hawaii during World War I, a surplus of bananas resulted from very few ships available to export the fruit.  To prevent waste, alternative uses for bananas were developed. For example, bakeries started incorporating the fruit into their bread.

This recipe was printed in The Maui News on April 12, 1918, for banana bread:

2/3 banana
1/3 flour
Yeast, coconut milk or water

There was also rationing of staple food items such as flour.  Banana flour was a suggested substitute.  It was touted as a health food and recommended for a vegetarian diet.

This, of course, is not the quick bread we know today.  A recipe submitted by Mrs. Dean in the February 18, 1918, issue of The Garden Island paper for a banana muffin might more closely resemble the quick bread we think of today.

1 cup cornmeal
3-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 sifted banana
3/4 cup rye flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon Crisco

Mix dry ingredients, add banana, milk and egg and Crisco.

Quick Bread and Muffin.....

The difference between a quick bread and a muffin in baking has a lot to do with the type of fat and how it is mixed creating a different crumb or texture to the bread.

In 1927, Unifruit (a wholesale produce company) offered a free cookbook called From the Tropics to Your Table. The book offered recipes full of bananas as ingredients including banana muffins and breads. This little cookbook would have been handy during the Great Depression which was just around the corner. At the time, families utilized every scrap of food, including overripe bananas. They cooked overripe bananas, as well as other fruits and vegetables, into breads, stews and other dishes when flavor and texture were not as appealing raw.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Bake your favorite version of banana bread to celebrate. With so many varieties to try – banana nut, chocolate banana and more – you can make more than one! Invite someone to join you or give a loaf or two away. The celebration is just too good not to share!

Buttermilk Banana BreadBanana Sour Cream BreadApplesauce Banana BreadBanana Chocolate Chip BreadPeanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread