Chicken Baked in Sherry and Cream is an elegant mid-century chicken dish, suitable for entertaining. This recipe comes to me originally from a 1949 cookbook published by the Eugene (Oregon) Welfare League, now the Eugene Junior League. Like most Junior Leaguer recipes, this dish has a distinct fancy company vibe. The ingredient list is classy……
Course: Main Dishes and Entrees
Lohimuhennos (Finnish Salmon Stew, 1939, adapted)
Lohimuhennos is a hearty salmon and potato stew from Finland. The name lohimuhennos is a simple compound word in Finnish. Lohi=salmon. Muhennos=stew. For a language that is largely impenetrable to non-native speakers, this is about as easy as it comes. The recipe comes to me by way of a 1939 cookbook: Recipes from “Round” the……
Spaghetti Honduras (1949, Oregon, adapted)
Spaghetti Honduras is a spaghetti dish with warm, fragrant tomato sauce. There doesn’t seem to be anything Honduran about it. This recipe is more like Mediterranean food than anything you’d find in central America. The recipe comes to me by way of a 1949 community cookbook from the Eugene (Oregon) Welfare League. In my older……
Oriental Roasted Chicken Sous Vide (1976, Boston, adapted)
Oriental Roasted Chicken Sous Vide is a vintage roast chicken recipe elevated by modern cooking techniques. The recipe comes originally from Presenting Boston…, a 1976 Junior League cookbook. Oven-baked chicken is a popular dish in my community cookbooks from the 70s and 80s, coinciding with changing dietary habits. (U.S. chicken consumption roughly doubled between 1960……
Ham with Noodles and Curry (Massachusetts, 1964, adapted)
Ham with Noodles and Curry is a quick and easy weeknight pasta for an old-school palate. As you might surmise from the titular pork product, this is not a traditional Indian dish. The recipe comes originally from Presenting Boston…, a 1964 Junior League Cookbook. The recipe probably originated much earlier. In my pre-WW II cookbooks……
Spaghetti All’Italiana (1937, adapted)
Spaghetti All’Italiana is a classic spaghetti with tomato sauce from a vintage cookbook. It comes to me by way Recipes from “Round the World”, published by the McNess company in the 1937. This book includes recipes from over a dozen countries, from Argentina to Switzerland, along with a selection of American favorites. Each recipe is……
Thai Pork Burritos
Thai Pork Burritos is a gleefully inauthentic weeknight meal with vaguely Asian styling. They aren’t fancy enough to call fusion food, and would be unrecognizable in Thailand or Mexico. They are, however, delicious and easy. They have been a staple at our dinner table for nearly two decades, and were my son’s all-time favorite meal……
Instant Pot Rindsgoulash (Boston Junior League, 1976, adapted)
Instant Pot Rindsgoulash [sic] is an traditional Austrian stew seasoned with paprika, one of many varieties of goulash found across continental Europe. The proper German spelling is Rindsgulasch, which translates simply as “beef goulash”. This particular recipe, along with the misspelling, comes to me by way of the Boston Junior League’s 1976 cookbook Presenting Boston… ……
Pasta Szechuan (adapted from Open House, 1995)
Pasta Szechuan is a quick and easy weeknight pasta recipe that might bear some resemblance to Asian food if you stand far away and look at it in bad lighting. The recipe comes to me by way of Open House, a 1995 cookbook supporting the National Alliance to End Homelessness. A few recipes in Open……