Chili Wheat (Oklahoma, 1978, adapted)

Let’s be honest – Chili Wheat is not a particularly appetizing name for a supper dish.  It sounds like it ought to be a snack food or some kind of hipster breakfast cereal.  Or maybe even a bad joke.  The truth is more mundane:  think Chili Mac but with wheat instead of macaroni.   To understand……

Cabbage-Cheese Chowder (Oklahoma, 1970s)

Cabbage-Cheese Chowder is a strange little recipe from that encapsulates everything I love about community cookbooks.  As with any church cookbook, most of the recipes in Adventures in Food feel as though they are meant to establish one’s place in a hierarchy.  People are prone to share recipes that they might prepare for fancy company, or……

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……

Orange-Spiced Pot Roast (Oklahoma, 1970s adapted)

Orange-Spiced Pot Roast is an international approach to the traditional Yankee pot roast.  The recipe comes to me by way of Adventures in Food, a 1970s cookbook from my parents’ Oklahoma congregation.  It’s a surprisingly adventuresome dish for this cookbook, where most of the main dish recipes are practical weeknight meals.   Like most 1970s……