Macaroni and Cheese with White Sauce is an old-school casserole-style macaroni and cheese, easy enough for a busy weeknight. The recipe is adapted from The Black Family Reunion Cookbook, compiled by the National Council of Negro Women. Despite its Simon and Schuster imprint and classy hardbound printing, The Black Family Reunion Cookbook has the same……
Season: winter
Sweet Sour Cream Cornbread (adapted from Open House, 1995)
Sweet Sour Cream Cornbread is a quick and dirty instant cornbread recipe perfect for beginner cooks. If I were twenty years younger I might call this a “hack” or “cheat code”. The key ingredient is Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix, already a shortcut to better-than-it-ought-to-be cornbread. For those unfamiliar, Jiffy Corn Muffins are usually prepared the……
Instant Pot Eggplant Chili (adapted from Open House, 1995)
Instant Pot Eggplant Chili is a hearty vegan dinner perfect for a busy meat-free weeknight. This recipe comes to me from an unlikely source: the 1995 cookbook Open House, prepared by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. It’s a weird little cookbook. On the outside it looks like a run-of-the-mill community cookbook, down to the……
Sausages in a Curry Sauce (adapted from The Mystery Chef’s Never Fail Cookbook, 1949)
Sausages in a Curry Sauce is a simple and inexpensive comfort food suitable for all seasons. While its perhaps a close cousin to a traditional currywurst, Sausages in a Curry Sauce eschews the traditional tomato-based sauce for a sweet-tart curry gravy. This recipe comes adapted from The Mystery Chef’s Never Fail Cookbook (1949), an odd……
Chicken and Mushroom Cream Soup (Egypt, adapted from Together: Our Community Cookbook, 2018)
Chicken and Mushroom Cream Soup is one of the more enjoyable recipes in Together: Our Community Cookbook. The original recipe was submitted to the cookbook by one Amaal abd Elrasoul, who came to London to help her sister-in-law after the Grenfell Tower fire. She credits the recipe to a neighbor in Cairo. In her own……
Chin-Chin-Charlie (Wisconsin, 1988, adapted)
Chin-Chin-Charlie is a meat-and-canned-soup casserole dressed up with traditionally Asian ingredients. This particular recipe comes to me by way of A Book of Favorite Recipes, a 1988 community cookbook from a Catholic parish in Krakow, Wisconsin, but these sorts of “Chinese” recipes show up frequently in older cookbooks. Like the Tuna Cashew Casserole, a traditional……
Cheesy Olive English Muffins (adapted from Breakfast & Brunch, 1990s)
Cheesy Olive English Muffins is my favorite quick and easy recipe from the Breakfast & Brunch cookbook in the Country Kitchen collection. Like all recipes in this cookbook it is included as part of a multi-course brunch menu. It is recommended as a starter to accompany an Oyster and Bacon Omelet, melon balls, and……
Curried Dried Beef (Wisconsin, 1962, adapted)
Curried Dried Beef is a delicate riff on the infamous “S–t on a Shingle“, a staple of WWII-era American military cuisine. More politely known as “Creamed Chipped Beef” or “S.O.S.”, the basic formula is a simple white sauce fortified with chipped beef, served over toast or muffins. It is easy to prepare, high in protein,……
Airy Light Casserole Bread (Oklahoma, 1970s)
Airy Light Casserole Bread is a simple yeast bread that resembles focaccia, but with much less work. The recipe comes to me by way of Adventures in Food, a community cookbook compiled by my parents’ Oklahoma congregation in the late 1970s. I’ve never been particularly good with yeast breads, but was intrigued by the unusual……