Food Friday: Pigs in a Blanket (Sort of)

Sometimes foods that have a familiar name might not be what we expect. In my book From the Family Kitchen I wrote about American Chop Suey and how most regions in the United States have a version of this dish but call it by different names.

I found another example today in my copy of  Presbyterian Cook Book. The Women's Society of the First Presbyterian Church. Winfield, Kansas. ca. 1932.

Their recipe, Pigs in a Blanket is a little different than what I would usually associate with that name. No pigs (hot dogs) and no biscuit blanket here. But hey, everything is better with bacon.

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Food Friday: Reading Women's Club Jello a la 1976

You have to love the bicentennial celebrations here in the United States. It's during that magic year of 1976 that towns, organizations, and groups published all types of histories and even cookbooks.

Enter the Reading Women's Club (Reading, Kansas) Cookbook. This 1976 cookbook published by the Reading Women's Civil Club includes a list of members, a photograph of their presumed meeting place and of course recipes.

 Lots of great midwestern recipes in this cookbook. Of course I had to gravitate to the one that is an old favorite. In my family, as I have written before, it is called Pink Stuff.

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Food Friday: Cinco de Mayo Edition

In honor of Cinco de Mayo I thought it appropriate to share a "Spanish" recipe. As you look at old community cookbooks they often have various versions of "ethnic" recipes. Of course it appears that typically there is  one ingredient in the recipe that for some reason makes it ethnic. In the recipes I find that are "Spanish" it's usually the inclusion of onion and/or tomato sauce.



In this recipe from The Women's Society of the First Presbyterian Church in Winfield, Kansas Cook Book one of the many "Spanish" recipes is for Spanish Pork Chops.

This early 1930s cookbook actually has a bunch of "Spanish and/or Mexican" recipes like Mexican Tomato Sauce, Spanish Meat Balls, Tamale Pie and Spanish Beans.

But if you really want some Mexican recipes for Cinco de Mayo you may want to check out something from an "authentic" Mexican cookbook like El Concinero Espanol by Encarnacion Pinedo (1898) or the El Paso Cook Book by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Y.M.C.A. (1898).

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