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And Coming SOON.....

Two Cake Tuesday! Bologna Cake b/w Plum Fun Cake!

Bologna Cake Submitted by DEANNA

Plum Fun Cake My Mother

                              

About a week ago, I got a frantic text from my sister, which read:

Mom is claiming that she used to make something called "plum fun cake" made w baby food. Do u know of this?

Well, I didn't remember the association with plums, but the baby food kind of rang a bell. A little quick Googling revealed that Plum Fun Cake was indeed something that was popular in the 1970s - one recipe I found claimed, in fact, that EVERYONE made it in the 70s.

Around the same time, new fan Deanna started devotedly following and commenting over on the Facebook page, and sent me the irresistible instructions for the Atkins-friendly hors d'oerve Bologna "Cake".  Cheese-covered processed meat is a particular favorite of the Kitschen, so I promised Deanna I'd get right to work. 

I'll start with the Bologna Cake, as it's by far the more time-intensive.  Here's the recipe as provided by Deanna:

12 ounces good quality bologna, sliced (I used Oscar Mayer, that's quality in MY house)
12 ounces room temperature cream cheese (one and one half blocks) 
 ½ package dry ranch salad dressing mix 
1 can aerosol cheese, sharp cheddar flavor 
Garnish: 1 sliced pimiento stuffed olive, a few slivers of green onion tops or few parsley leaves Buttery flavor crackers for serving 

In a medium bowl and with a spatula combine the dry ranch dressing mix with cream cheese until well blended. Place the first slice of bologna on a medium serving plate. Spread about a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture evenly over the top of the bologna. Place another slice of bologna on top and repeat until all of the bologna slices have been used. Spread the remaining cream cheese over the top and sides, as if icing a real cake. Squirt dollops of the aerosol cheese around the base of the “cake” and around the upper rim. Garnish as desired with olives, parsley or green onions. To serve, place a very thin, sharp knife on the plate for guests to slice thin wedges. Place on top of a buttery-style cracker (Townhouse or Ritz). Serves 10-12 

It may sound like an easy task to spread cream cheese on bologna, but as you probably know, bologna is a frictionless surface, there's nothing for the cheese to cling to. So go into this with clean hands, you'll be using your fingers to get everything spread evenly. Once assembled, though, it will make a charming addition to your entertaining table:

Plum Fun Cake will come together much more quickly.  Only one problem - I'll be damned if I could find any plum & tapioca baby food. I'm not sure it's made any more.  I considered several alternatives based on what I found in the store, and finally settled on a prune-apple combination.  The result is still delicious, but if anyone knows a hidden source of authentic plum-tapioca flavor, let me know!

Here's the standard recipe as found on Cooks.com: 
3/4 c. oil
2 c. sugar 
3 eggs 
1 tbsp. red food color 
1 tsp. vanilla 
2 sm. jars plum and tapioca baby food 
2 c. flour 
1/2 tsp. soda 
1/2 tsp. salt 
1 tsp. cloves 
1 tsp. cinnamon 
1 c. chopped pecans

Mix oil, sugar, eggs, food coloring, vanilla, and baby food together. Sift together flour, soda, salt, cloves, and cinnamon. Mix with wet ingredients, add pecans. Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees in well greased and floured pan (tube or Bundt pan).

Plum flavor substituted as mentioned, and I forgot to put the pecans in. My cake also wasn't done after an hour, I baked it about an hour and 20 minutes.

The batter is also the most intriguing blood-red color as it's mixing!

 But - moist and delicious!  Both offerings this week, in fact, were very well received:

Our Rating: Zero Screaming Husbands!(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

Eggs a la King!

Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Cook Book, 1959

Happy Easter! Ish. I hope it was splendid for you, and equally I hope that you've come here looking for things to do with all your leftover hard-boiled eggs, I've got just the thing.

(It involves cream sauce, there's literally nothing that could go wrong.)

And before I forget - if you're anywhere near Helena or Butte, Montana, Dr. Husband and I will be performing there later this week. Just go one over to the Montana Early Music Festival for all the information.

Now, Eggs a la King is the sort of thrifty meal I grew up on, in a time when no leftover was allowed to linger in the fridge until it was time to be thrown out. Everything thing had a use and every single scrap of food was put to use within four days of its original purpose (to be honest, in mmy zaftig family there were very few leftovers after a family meal, despite the fact that that if there were four people coming to dinner, my mother cooked for ten. But.)

First of all, you need to be steaming your eggs instead of boiling. I tried it for the first time tonight and I will never do it any other way. They were cooked perfectly after 15 minutes in the steamer basket, no holes had to be pricked in the shell, no cracking while cooking, and the shell peeled off like magic.  

Second of all, I believe I could eat almost anything if it came in a cream sauce.

So, Eggs a la King. Here's the recipe as it appears in 1959's Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Cook Book:

To 2 cups medium white sauce, add 6 sliced hard-cooked eggs, on 3-ounce can (2/3 cup) broiled sliced mushrooms, drained, and 2 tablespoons catsup. Heat. Pour over hot buttered toast; top with thick broiled tomato slices. Makes 6 servings.

I'm flattered that BH&G thought I would have white sauce at the ready, but I didn't. For authenticity, I used a basic Betty Crocker recipe:

 

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

1/4 teaspoon salt  

1/8 teaspoon pepper 

1 cups milk  

In 1 1/2-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Gradually stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly; boil and stir 1 minute.

Dr. Husband was literally jumping in his skin to taste it, and what did he think? 

 

Our Rating: Zero Screaming Husbands!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

Corn and Wiener Bake

Libby's Advertising Insert, 1960-something

 

If it says Libby Libby Libby on the label label label , then you can rest assured that it's richer in NATURAL corn cream!"

You may think today's recipe is the epitome of laziness on my part, but after all, I did have to gash the hot dogs, and stuff them with triangles of American cheese, which I had to make myself because it's only sold in squares. Plus a new issue of Vanity Fair just came so I've been so very busy.

If you're tempted to try it on your own, here's how to do it:

In baking dish, stir 2 tbsp. prepared mustard into 2 #303 cans Libby's Cream Style Corn. Add 8 wieners, gashed and stuffed with sharp cheese. Dot corn with butter and bake in mod. oven 20 min.

I actually thought this would go worse than it did, since Dr. Husband was really hungry and I assured him I would make a healthy nutritious lunch for him...

Our Rating: Three Screaming Husbands!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

Virginia's Emerald Isle Shrimp!

I wasn’t going to bother with St. Patrick’s Day - seeing as how I’m on Spring Break, and Dr. Husband is visiting his family, and last year's St. Patrick's Day offering was fairly successful so why mess with a good thing – but a post from Yinzerella shamed me into action (I follow her with regularity, as you all should be).

I’m not sure who “Virginia” is, or why she’s so averse to flavor of any kind, but here’s her recipe for St. Paddy’s Day shrimp. You know how flamingos are pink because of all the shrimp they eat? This is kind of like that, only you're imparting the color of the spinach into the shrimp (which wasn't entirely successful here. Maybe shrimp are more color resistant these days? I blame Monsanto). 

As I write, there's a little over an hour left of St. Patrick's Day, but if you're still standing and need something to do, here's the recipe:

3 dozen medium shrimp
2 pounds fresh spinach
2 cups dairy sour cream
2 packages (8-oz size) cream cheese
6 lemons, cut into wedges

Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails intact; sprinkle lightly with lemon juice and set aside.
Carefully wash and devein spinach; tear leaves into bits. Place in large saucepan with 2 cup water. Place shrimps on top of spinach leaves. Bring water to boil; cook slowly 3-4 minutes or until spinach is wilted and shrimp are cooked through. Take care not to overcook lest shrimp become tough.
Shrimp will turn pale green as they absorb color from the spinach. Remove shrimp from saucepan and refrigerate for later use.

Drain spinach and purée in blender or food processor; measure 2 1/2 cups cooked puréed spinach and place in mixing bowl; fold in dairy sour cream and cream cheese; mix thoroughly.
Lightly oil 6-cup ring mold; spoon spinach-cheese mixture into mold. Cover and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

Unmold spinach-cream mixture onto plate; arrange shrimp on mold in decorative manner; fill center of mold with lemon wedges arranged in sunburst fashion.

Full disclosure, I halved the amounts of the spinach-cream mixture, and it was plenty. Plenty of flavorless nuthin'.  Almost any addition would make this not half bad - a packet of ranch dressing mix, horseradish, minced onion, pepper jelly - in fact, almost anything that actually possessed flavor, which spinach, cream cheese, and sour cream do not. Do you agree, panel?

Our Rating: Three Screaming Husbands!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

Tuna 'n Waffles!

Campell's Soup Recipes ca. 1954

Snow Day! Snow Day! Snow Day!

Oh, so there's a snow day today, if you haven't heard. I was going to post something today anyway, but thought I'd take the opportunity of free time to branch out into other mealtimes. If I were to really set my mind to the task, I'd likely calculate that Dr. Husband has made far more breakfasts than I have - perhaps with good reason.

Also - thanks, America, for all the new Facebook likes this week. Keep 'em coming! (And subscribe to our Youtube Channel while you're at it)

In case you're having trouble reading the recipe from the ad above, here you go. (I omitted the olives, not by choice - they've all been used up in martinis and I can't get to the store because of the aforementioned snow.)

Blend 1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup with 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup drained, flaked tuna (7-oz. can) and 1/4 cup sliced stuffed olives. Heat thoroughly. Pour over 4 crisp waffles. Presto, a quick 'n easy dinner for 4.

DINNER FOR FOUR my foot. It barely fed two of us and we didn't even like it that much!

I mean - it was okay. Reminds me of the creamed codfish that my grandmother used to make, served over her own homemade bread.

Here's Dr. Husband's reaction, not as bad as I feared -

Our Rating: One Screaming Husband!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

Summer Salad!

The Joys of Jell-O, p. 52

I'm assuming most of you live in America, and thus have been suffering under cruelly cold weather - I live in a nearly 200-year old house as well, which soaks up the cold and makes it frigid even on the off days that the thermometer is above freezing. So, I thought I'd bring a little summer into all of our lives, with this delight from the Joys of Jell-O cookbook circa 1963. A delicious, lovely salad that displays the bounty of the season, the book says. Because nothing says summer like rough-cut vegetables suspended in gelatin!

Summer Salad holds pride of place as the back cover illustration for 1963's Joys of Jell-O:

Based on that illustration alone, I didn't hold out much hope for this entry, never mind the version I ended up with on my own. But a wish gastronomic friend saw a preview of today's post and, unprompted, remarked "...it looks like fresh tomatoes, celery, green pepper, and cucumbers in a simple gelatin. If it is favored with a vinegar and garlic base, it could be quite wonderful." I'll be damned if he wasn't right.

Vinegar, yes, but no garlic - lemon Jell-O is the base, and we all know that's the key to success when adding vegetables or meat. Sour it up with vinegar and salt so the sweetness doesn't overpower, until such time as my humble efforts prompt a resurgence of Jell-O mania and they bring back celery and Italian dressing flavors. Here's the recipe:

1 package (3 oz.) lemon Jell-O gelatin
1/2 teaspoon salt or onion salt
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 small tomato, cut into thin wedges
1/4 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup sliced quartered cucumber
few slivers green pepper
dash of oregano (optional)

Dissolve Jell-O Gelatin and salt in boiling water. Add cold water and vinegar. Chill until very thick. Fold in remaining ingredients. Pour into a 3-cup or 1-quart mold. Chill until firm. Unmold on crisp greens. Garnish with more tomato, if desired. Makes about 3 cups, or 6 side salads. 
NOTE: If desired, substitute 1/2 cup sliced radishes for tomato or 1/2 cup chopped cauliflower for cucumber.

No substitutions here (and no oregano either, if you were keeping track). What did my discriminating guests think?

Our Rating: Zero Screaming Husbands!

(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)