Next Best Thing to Tom Selleck Cake is a genteel, Christian take on Better than Sex Cake, which was a randy fixture of otherwise staid cooking magazines in the late 1980s. This recipe is adapted from a version I found in Country Favorites, a 1980s community cookbook from a Catholic congregation in Wisconsin. I imagine……
Month: January 2021
Macaroni, Peanuts, and Cheese (adapted from the Black Family Reunion Cookbook, 1991)
Macaroni, Peanuts, and Cheese is a one of the more unique recipes in The Black Family Reunion Cookbook, a contribution from Ms. Hazel Isaiah-Ransom. She tells a story of growing up in small-town Oklahoma with a 10 (!) siblings and a mother who could never make enough macaroni and cheese to feed the crew. Young……
Chicken with Tabasco and Indian Spices (adapted from Just One Pot, 2007)
Chicken with Tabasco and Indian Spices is a recipe that captures the whimsy of the Just One Pot cookbook. The version in the original is called Chicken with Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Olives but the clickbait marketer in my soul just didn’t think that captured the scattershot spirit of the ingredient list. The key seasonings are……
Cookbook Review: Just One Pot (2007)
Just One Pot (2007) is a handsome, coffee table-style cookbook from the good folks at Readers’ Digest. I am a sucker for pretty pictures and picked this one up at one of those cheap book warehouse emporiums. My only cultural touchpoint for Readers’ Digest comes from the bookshelf in the bathroom of my childhood home. …
Baked Bananas and Cranberries (adapted from Old-Time Meatless Recipes, 1955)
Baked Bananas and Cranberries is an easy-to-make fruit-forward side dish that exemplifies the spirit of Old-Time Meatless Recipes. The original cookbook includes full mean plans: Baked Bananas and Cranberries is meant to accompany a luncheon menu of cheese rarebit (i.e. Welsh rabbit) and coffee. As will be obvious from the ingredient list, it is not……
Old-Time Meatless Recipes (1955)
I’ve never been sure what to make of Katharine Morrison McClinton’s Old-Time Meatless Recipes. It is nominally a cookbook, with around a hundred recipes. But Ms. McClinton wasn’t a chef, she was an antiques writer. She wrote more than thirty books and countless magazine articles for antique collectors over a fifty year career, and this…
Lamb Shank Vindaloo (inspired by Hotpoint Storybook Kitchen Cookbook, 1964)
Lamb Shank Vindaloo is a mid-century American interpretation of a popular Indian dish with Portuguese roots. The lamb shank is cooked in a sour and spicy sauce that’s addictive and delicious. Vindaloo dishes are now an Indian restaurant staple, but the sauce has its origins in a vinegary Portuguese stew. As such you’ll often find……
Braised Greens with Paneer
Braised Greens with Paneer is a recipe born of necessity. If I’m up early on a weekend morning I’ll take a trip out to the specialty butcher for inspiration for Sunday dinner, and then get the rest of the meal at the farm stand up the road. On this particular weekend I had picked up……
Cheese Apple Sausage Brunch Tart (Wisconsin, 1989, adapted)
Cheese Apple Sausage Brunch Tart is a cross between a quiche and a truck stop breakfast. It has the refined eggs-and-cheese-in-a-crust of a quiche mixed with an unholy amount of breakfast sausage. This recipe comes to me by way of a 1989 community cookbook from Ascension Lutheran Church in Wisconsin. Their congregation devotes an……