Mock-Steak Joubey (adapted from The Smart Shopper’s Cookbook, 1972)

Mock-Steak Joubey is one of the more entertaining recipes in The Smart Shopper’s Cookbook.  To some degree it captures the essence of the cookbook – making elegant meals with ground meat or inexpensive cuts – but very few of the recipes take that charge quite so literally.   Mock-Steak Joubey actually fashions a ground meat patty……

Bisquick Taco Pie (Indiana, 1992, adapted)

Bisquick Taco Pie is a nifty little weeknight casserole from a 1992 cookbook compiled by the Hebron Indiana Order of the Eastern Star.  I’m not sure whether Masonic traditions involve potlucks, but this is a brilliant old-school potluck dish. It’s a variant on a biscuit-topped shepherd’s pie, jazzed up with some Americanized Mexican flavors.  In……

Mexican Barley Soup (adapted from Mexican Recipes, 1967)

Mexican Barley Soup is a hearty beef soup that’s easy enough to cobble together on a weeknight.   I have adapted it gently from the 1967 cookbook Mexican Recipes.  Mexican Barley Soup exemplifies the simplicity and accessibility of the selection in Mexican Recipes.  This recipe is nestled in with a bunch of more obviously traditional recipes,……