Pizza Casserole

I am one of those strange kids who actually liked my school cafeteria food. Fish sticks, tater tots, bring it on! This particular dish was so beloved that my mother got the recipe. Slightly obscured--should call for "1/2 lb. noodles."

Egg & Bologna

I'm not sure how this story ended up here...I was writing up an announcement for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and had also been thinking about recipes I grew up with and...voila!

So these are the facts: My parents were married 50 years ago on December 22nd, 1961, in Hudson, MI. Isn't the picture above cute?! Some time later I was born, and then my brother, and my mother hunkered down to make 7 dinners a week, 52 weeks a year. We didn't go out all that often because we lived in a very rural area and there weren't a lot of restaurants. I now feel somewhat sorry for my mother, having to sling out all those dinners, though I think she's gotten her revenge since my father now cooks at least as much, if not more often, than she does. In any case, I was raised on a handful of recipes, circa 1950s-'70s, and this one is sort of infamous. It was popular after Easter when we had an abundance of hard-boiled eggs. My dad called it SOS (shit on a shingle) and refused to eat it. But I have to say...I think it is a comfort food I would still eat today!

Basically you make a cream sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

salt, pepper, paprika to taste

You know how to make a cream sauce right?! When the sauce has reached a creamy consistency, stir in the ground up egg & bologna...

2 hard-boiled eggs

3 oz. bologna

I do not have a food grinder, so I would just finely dice these things. Then serve the slop over saltine crackers. I kid you not, I used to love this SOS!

Here are my parents, 50 years later. Aren't they cute?! Maybe I will make some Egg & Bologna for them and my Dad will roll his eyes...

Spaghetti (I think)

This recipe card is on par with "Tunafish Samwich"...a real hot mess! We had spaghetti about once a week growing up, usually with a piece of American cheese on top, and I no longer eat pasta this particular way. (In other words, I got my fill of it as a child!) But I still can't throw out the recipe...

FYI, the first line specifies "Chef Boyardee" sauce. Important!

Basic Fall Chili

One time I made this recipe for someone and they were surprised to learn that you didn't need 27.5 ingredients and 3.5 hours of simmering to make chili. The flavors may not be quite as complex, but this is the recipe I grew up with and, most of the time, its simplicity suits me just fine!

As I look closely at the recipe card, I see "parley"--which I assume is "parsley." This is very odd as I don't recall ever using parsley! We often served this over rice and then sprinkled grated cheese and saltines on top. I know, very authentic!

1 onion, diced (and maybe some garlic if you're so inclined)
1 pound ground beef or turkey
28-ounce can whole tomatoes, with juice
14-ounce can kidney beans
1 tablespoon chili powder
salt, pepper, cayenne, additional cumin to taste

Saute onion (and garlic) in olive or vegetable oil over medium heat. When soft, add meat and break up somewhat. Cook until browned, then dump in everything else. Break up the tomatoes with a spoon, and simmer 10-15 minutes--or longer to reach desired consistency.

Seven Layer Bars

This recipe has been around forever. I have also seen these called Magic Cookie Bars and Hello Dollies. I loved the recipe as a kid: both the fact that you could make it all in the pan, and then of course how good it was, especially if you like super sweet things!

You can see from the recipe card (why oh why, was margarine--or in this case "olio"--in all my recipes from the '70s??) how we used to make it. Today I'd use peanut butter chips instead of butterscotch...though the recipe is obviously open to a myriad of variations!

1. 1/2 cup (one stick) butter - can be melted right in a 9" x 13" pan!
2. 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3. 1 cup coconut
4. 12 oz. (one package) chocolate chips
5. 12 oz. (one package) peanut butter chips
6. 1 can sweetened condensed milk
7. 1+1/2 cup chopped (not "shopped") nuts

Bake in a 350° oven for 30 minutes.

A corridor of chips (I made this in my zig-zag pan) before adding the sweetened condensed milk.

Recipe Box Favorites

A little explanation about this recipe designation... These recipes are basically pure nostalgia from my recipe box! (Though hopefully they have other merits as well!) My first recipe box was this green one on top—it seems very appropriate for the '70s. That filled up a few years ago and I couldn't find any I liked in stores, so I ended up getting the white one on eBay. I didn't realize it when I ordered it, but I'm almost positive my mother's recipe box was this very same design when I was a kid. (Unfortunately it was thrown out years ago and she now has an ugly plastic one.) I like the fact that these are a sort of history, containing artifacts from throughout my life, going back to age 7 or 8. And it includes not just hand-written recipes from friends and relatives, but also many snipped out from newspapers, magazines and, increasingly, the internet.

So the recipes in this subset go way back. I've included the actual index card, often somewhat stained and with dubious spelling and handwriting!

4-H Pledge

Just in case you've ever wondered what those "H"s stand for! I took numerous 4-H cooking classes as a kid, which explains the presence of this in my recipe box.

Tunafish Samwich Filling

This is one of the earliest recipes I ever wrote down. It always makes me chuckle...

My Favorite Brownies

These are Marion Cunningham's "Parker Brownies." I wrote the recipe down years ago (see below) and had no idea where it came from, but a little web search has settled the mystery. I don't have any of her cookbooks, so it must have been reprinted in another source. Anyway... I have tried many brownie recipes over the years, but always come running back to this one! Chewy, but not quite fudgy, these come out on the thin side--so you just have to eat a larger piece!

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup (or more) chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and grease an 8" x 8" pan. Melt the chocolate and butter over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla, then the egg. (It should become kind of glossy.) Finally add the dry ingredients and nuts. Spread in pan and bake for 30 minutes. Isn't that easy?!

Wonder Chocolate Cake

I loved making this as a kid for a few reasons: 1) the part about making 3 holes and then trying to keep everything from spilling out, 2) mixing it all up in one pan, and 3) yumminess!

Today I do mix it in a separate bowl with a trusty wooden spoon because it's easier to get at all the dry ingredients (in a square pan they sometimes get left unmixed in the corners, though this isn't a serious problem). It's a relatively quick little cake to whip up, and is very moist.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift or whisk together:

1+1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup sugar

Make 3 holes in the dry ingredients and pour in:

6 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla (almond extract is also good)

1 tablespoon vinegar

Pour 1 cup cold water over everything and mix well, though don't worry about every little lump. In this particular case I also stirred in about 2/3 cup coconut. Pour into an ungreased 9" square or round pan and bake for 35-40 minutes; top may crack a little.