• 4 oz uncooked corkscrew-shaped macaroni (that would be known as “rotini” to most people in the world)
• 1/2 c. finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper
• 1 T. butter or margarine
• 1 can (12 oz) pork luncheon meat, cut into cubes (this would be your SPAM, which apparently is the the only company in America that is actually making money off the recession.)
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (although Campbells might be giving them a run for their money.  Perhaps they should get together and invent SPAM with the cream of mushroom soup already in it?)
• 1/2 c. catsup (or ketchup)
• 1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 400. Cook macaroni as directed on package; drain.  In large skillet cook and stir onion and green pepper in butter until onion is tender. Stir in macaroni and remaining ingredients.

Pour into ungreased 1 1/2 qt casserole. Cover; bake 30 minutes.

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The true test of a recession recipe is whether or not it has seasoning in it.  When the only seasoning in your recipe comes from the Cream of Mushroom soup, you know you are at the end of the line.  Add some hot sauce.  It will make you feel rich.

Cream together sugar and shortening.  Add eggs, and blend.

Sift together dry ingredients, and add alternately with milk.  Add vanilla.

Drop by tablespoon on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for ten minutes.

FILLING:

Combine 1/2 c. milk and 2 T. flour.  Cook until thick.  Cool.

Add 1/4 c. shortening, and 1/4 c. oleo, 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla.  Beat until creamy and thick.

Put filling between 2 cookies, to make a sandwich.

These can be kept for days by wrapping in waxed paper.  They can also be frozen.

Mrs. Rose L. Jordan.  Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  From the 1958 Maine March of Dimes Cookbook.

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True confession time.  I have lived in Maine over ten years, and I have never had a Whoopie Pie.  They always look so huge and garish and blorpy.  Reading the recipe for this filling makes them seem even less appetizing.  How can a blob of shortening and margarine with some milk in it be tasty?  I would make the cookies and fill them with my fantastic homemade whipped cream.  Because then I think they would taste like Wafer Cake, and that is my favorite thing in the world.  But the two dollar (four dollar in the summer!) smashed and stale Whoopie Pie down at the Cumberland Farms?  No thank you.

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Dough:

• 1 c. milk
• 3 c. bisquick
• 1/4 c. mayonaise

Cook pork and onion over low heat until meat is no longer pink.  Cool.

Drain spinach, add to meat and onions, with rest of the ingredients.

Spread half of dough on greased cookie sheet.  cover with meat mixture.  Spread rest of dough over mixture.  Brush with a beaten egg yolk, if desired.

Bake 25 to 30 min at 400.  Cut in squares.  Serve hot or cold.  Very good as a main dish, accompanied by salad.

–Josephine F. Olsen Cape Elizabeth, Maine from the 1958 Maine March of Dimes Cookbook

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I loathe canned spinach, so I would use frozen or fresh, and I am kinda grossed out by the mayo in the crust bit.  I am wondering what that does for it.  Hmm.

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• 1 lb. ground beef (fine)
• 1 c. dried bread crumbs
• 1/4 c. minced onions
• 1 T. corn starch
• few grains Allspice
• 1 egg slightly beaten
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 c. salad oil, to fry meatballs

Gravy

• 2 cans consomme
• 1 c. water
• 6 tsp. flour

Make gravy.  Pour over meatballs.  Let simmer in covered skillet 20-25 mins.

–Recipe from the 1958 Maine March of Dimes Cookbook.  Submitted by Chuck Sanford WGAN-Radio Portland, Maine.  (What is it with the WGAN guys and their meatballs? )

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From the Maine March of Dimes Cookbook 1958.  Submitted by Harry Marble of WGAN-Radio in Portland, Maine.

MEAT BALL CASSEROLE

• 2 lbs Ground Chuck
• 1 bottle stuffed olives
• 1 bottle Catsup

Make small meatballs–about 1 tsp meat to each–Do Not Season.  Roll in flour.

Grease 2 qt. casserole.  Place 1 sliced onion on the bottom. (optional).  Place a layer of meatballs on the onion.  Then add 1 layer of sliced olives.  Do this for three layers.

Pour one bottle of catsup over all, and then fill catsup bottle 1/3 full of water and add to the casserole.

Bake in a slow oven 300 degrees for about 2 hours. , keeping the casserole covered part of the tme.

NOTE: Leftovers can be mixed and used for spaghetti sauce.

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Take that France!  Us Americans are SUPER gourmets!

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Simmer onions and garlic in wesson oil until limp.  Combine all ingredients and put in uncovered casserole.  Bake at 350 for 40 mins to an hour.

–from Christ Church Cookbook Savannah, GA

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“Cook in wesson oil until limp.”  Well doesn’t that just make you want to run out and make this recipe?  I can actually vouch for this recipe….I have made it many times, it is one of my husbands favorite foods.  In fact, he is sick and I am making it for him for dinner.  I do not use the wesson oil though.  I use butter.  About a tablespoon, and if the casserole doesn’t mix up all smooth like I add a glug of olive oil.  TADA!

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The best time to make vegetable soup is a day or so after you have had fried chicken and out of which you have saved the necks, ribs, backs uncooked. (The chicken is not essential, but does add something.)

Procure from the meat market a good beef soup bone, the bigger the better. It is a rather good idea to have it split down the middle so the marrow is exposed. In addition, buy a couple pounds of ordinary soup meat, either beef or mutton, or both.

Put all this meat, early in the morning, in a big kettle. The best kind is heavy aluminum, but a good iron pot will do almost as well. Put in also the bony parts of the chicken you have saved. Cover it with water, something on the order of 5 quarts. Add a teaspoon of salt, a bit of black pepper and, if you like, a touch of garlic (one small piece). If you don’t like garlic put in onion. Boil all this slowly all day long. Keep on boiling until the meat has literally dropped off the bone. If your stock boils down during the day, add enough water from time to time to keep the meat covered. When the whole thing has practically disintegrated pour out into another large kettle through a colander. Make sure the marrow is out of the bones. Let this drain through the colander for quite awhile as much of the juice will drain out of the meat. (Shake the colander to help get out all the juices.)

save a few of the better pieces of meat just to cut up a little bit in small pieces to put into your soup after it is done. Put the kettle containing the stock you now have in a very cool place, outdoors in the winter or in the ice box; let it stand all night and the next day until you are ready to make your soup.

You will find that a hard layer of fat has formed on top of the stock which can usually be lifted off since the whole kettle full of stock has jelled. Some people like a little bit of the fat left on and some like their soup very rich and do not remove more than about half of the fat.

Put the stock back into your kettle and you are ready to make your soup.

In a separate pan, boil slowly about a third of a teacupful of barley. This should be cooked separately since it has a habit, in a soup kettle, of settling to the bottom and if your fire should happen to get too hot it is likely to burn. If you cannot get barley, use rice, but it is a poor substitute.

One of the secrets of making good vegetable soup is not to cook any of the vegetables too long. however it is impossible to give you an exact measure of the vegetables you should put in because some people like their vegetable soup almost as thick as stew, others like it much thinner. Moreover, sometimes you can get exactly the vegetables you want, other times you have to substitute. Where you use canned vegetables, put them in only a few minutes before taking the coup off the fire. If you use fresh ones, naturally they must be fully cooked in the soup. The things put into the soup are about as follows:

• 1 quart of canned tomatoes
• 1/2 teacupful of fresh peas. If you can’t get peas, a handful of good green beans cut up very small can substitute
• 2 normal sized potatoes, diced into cubes of about 1/2 inch size
• 2 or 3 bunches of good celery
• 1 good sized onion, sliced
• 3 nice-sized carrots diced about the same size as potatoes
• 1 turnip diced like the potatoes
• a handful of raw cabbage cut into small pieces

Your vegetables should not all be dumped in at once. The potatoes, for example, will cook more quickly than the carrots. Your effort must be to have them all nicely cooked, but not mushy, at about the same time.

The fire must not be too hot but the should should be kept bubbling.

When you figure the soup is about done, put in your barley, which should now be fully cooked, add a tablespoonful of prepared gravy seasoning and taste for flavoring, particularly salt and pepper, and if you have it, some onion salt, garlic salt, and celery salt. (If you cannot get the gravy seasoning, use one teaspoonful of Worcestershire Sauce.)

Cut up the few bits of meat you have saved and put a handful in the soup.

While you are cooking the soup do not allow the liquid to boil down too much. Add a bit of water from time to time. If your stock was good and thick when you started, you can add more water than if it was thin when you started.

As a final touch, in the springtime when the nasturtiums are green and tender, you can take a few nasturtium stems, cut them up in small pieces , boil them separately as you did the barley, and add them to your soup.

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Holy politician recipe Batman!  Add some garlic!  No wait!  If you don’t like garlic add onions!  But only if you want!  I typed this whollllleeee thing out because I thought it was funny.  Now laugh!  Laugh louder!

–From Christ Church Cookbook, Savannah, GA

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Mix and heat all in top of double boiler until cheese is melted.  Keep warm and serve with corn chips.  Especially recommended for a beer party.

–Mrs. Thomas Clay (Anita Lippit) Christ Church Cookbook, Savannah, Georgia

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I must confess that I did not add this recipe because I wanted to make it.  I added it because it had a funny name, and because it is “recommended for a beer party.”  Because church ladies are oh so well known for their awesome beer parties.  When I think “Prairie Fire Dip”, I think of the farting scene in Blazing Saddles.

Technorati Tags: appetizers, cheese, beer parties, Church Cookbooks

Form into ball and roll in 1/2 c. dried beef which has been chopped.

Christ Church Cookbook, Savannah Georgia

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MSG if wanted?  Now who wouldn’t want a little MSG with their dried beef???  I believe this cheese ball is supposed to be served with the “Green Cheese Ball” at the Xmas time. How cute.

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Form ball and roll in one cup chopped parsley.

Christ Church Cookbook, Savannah Georgia

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