Soup Bagdad is a warm and rich lentil-and-lamb soup punched up with a heavy hand of fresh herbs. Despite the long simmer time this is still a tractable weeknight meal, and requires very little chopping or active time. It’s also plenty hearty for a weekend meal. This recipe comes to me by way of Smart……
Course: Side Dishes and Salads
Oktoberfest Potato Pancakes (adapted from Beta Sigma Phi International Cookbook, 1956)
Despite not having a lick of German heritage, the German language is spoken frequently in our house. My spouse and I both learned German in high school, and my daughter has two years of college German under her belt. None of us are anywhere near fluent but we’re fairly competent, enough for a week abroad……
Macaroni with Yogurt Sauce (California, 1990s, adapted)
I’ve been cooking long enough that I can figure out what a recipe’s going to taste like just from reading the ingredient list. There’s not a lot new under the sun, and the community cookbooks that I frequently cook from aren’t exactly known for their innovative cuisine. There’s an awful lot of repetition, even within……
Chicken Pistachio Pasta Salad (California, 2006, adapted)
Chicken Pistachio Pasta Salad is a hearty entrée salad perfect for a warm summer evening. This recipe comes to me by way of a community cookbook from the Mother Teresa Maternity Home in Placerville, CA, which serves as both a women’s shelter and a temporary home for pregnant women. Unlike most community cookbooks, this one……
40 Carrots (Nebraska, 1987, adapted)
I’m a little bit embarrassed to publish this. 40 Carrots isn’t much of a recipe, and the end result isn’t really worth eating. Spoiler alert: it’s cooked carrots and Cheez Whiz. It tastes exactly like you’d imagine. My kids weren’t impressed. I won’t be making this one again. Why did I choose to make it……
Funeral Potatoes (California, 1997, adapted)
Funeral potatoes are an almost meme-worthy dish these days, one of the few mid-century canned-soup-and-cream casseroles that’s still aligned with the twenty-first century palate. I’ve never been to a funeral with refreshments, much less a full meal. The dreary name presumably stems from a custom of serving them at a post-service family meal, or perhaps……
Riverbank Barbecue Baked Beans (adapted from Cooking with Regis & Kathie Lee, 1996)
For a novelty cookbook I’m getting a lot of mileage out of Cooking with Regis & Kathie Lee. I picked up the cookbook out of a sense of nostalgia for the old Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee daytime show. I’d still say the book is more fun to read than it is to……
Spanish Chinese Fried Rice (New Jersey, 1995, adapted)
Spanish Chinese Fried Rice is a nifty little recipe that I found in Buen Provecho, a community cookbook compiled by HISPA, then a professional development group for Hispanic AT&T employees. This cookbook was put together to raise money for the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund as part of HISPA’s larger efforts in the community. Shortly after Buen……
Arroz con Azafrán (Spanish Saffron Rice, New Jersey, 1995, adapted)
Arroz con Azafrán (rice with saffron) is an attractive and versatile side dish suitable that adds a little bit of class to any number of meals. This particular version is adapted from Buen Provecho, a 1995 cookbook compiled by HISPA, which – at the time – was an employee group for Hispanic AT&T employees. HISPA……
Peppers Stuffed with Eggs (adapted from Old-Time Meatless Recipes, 1955)
Peppers Stuffed with Eggs is a nifty little baked eggs recipe from Katharine McClinton’s 1955 cookbook Old-Time Meatless Recipes. Originally published as Loaves and Fishes: Menus and Recipes for Fridays and Lent, this cookbook defines “meatless” in terms of traditional Catholic dietary restrictions; in modern parlance lacto-ovo-piscetarian is probably more appropriate. More than half of……