This week I decided it was going to be necessary to move ahead in the book to another chapter. I know I have barely done any recipes from the “Regional Meals” chapter but I have had too many menus in the chapter that I can’t get the things I need to cook them from my little neighborhood grocery store.
I looked at several of the menus and currently key components were not available. Some of them I know will come in as the year passes. For instance one menu is based on a corned beef, my store will have those next month or possibly in a couple of weeks but not now. Same with the ribs from another menu, in summer no problems, middle of winter not a rib to be found.
Then there are the menus that call for things I know I haven’t seen since I moved here. Those I will try to find at larger stores in the area or online. I will probably have to skip some of them though.
I am going to sit down with the book and the notebook I keep in my purse and make a list of all the things I want to track down so I can keep my eyes open for them.
Now onto today’s menu, this is the first menu in the chapter “Pennywise Dinners” and I was so happy to make it. I love a good meatloaf! There was actually a choice to make right off the bat they listed it as meatloaf or ham loaf. Both recipes were on the page and I might have to go back and make the other one some day. But this meatloaf resembled the ones I my mom used to make when I was growing up so I went with it. The big difference from the ones she made and this one was the meat mixture was equal parts ground beef and ground pork. She always used just ground beef, probably because we grew our own beef and that was what was always in the freezer. I other than the meat change it was pretty much what I remember her making. And it was excellent and brought back a lot of memories for me.
The second choice in the menu was either a baked potato or scalloped potatoes. I am very much a fan of a good baked potato so I went that way.
Also on the menu was creamed spinach, something I don’t think I even tasted until I was an adult and yes I do really like it. I haven’t made it in years but I really should.
The menu was missing the bread component of the most of the other menus I have made. However, it did have apple wedges and celery sticks on the menu along with everything else. I admit that confused me a bit, I mean why we already had the spinach for a veggie. Maybe because this chapter is all about saving money and those are/were cheaper than meat and would fill you up to make less food be more satisfying. I’m not sure but that is what I am assuming.
For the dessert I was super excited, I know it is just a jello dessert but it is a variation of one my mom made all the time. For this menu it was made with raspberry jello, vanilla ice cream and frozen raspberries. My mom made the same dish but with orange jello and canned mandarin oranges. I am surprised she didn’t make this one since she loved raspberries so much. I know she would have loved it.
This menu was so much a trip down memory lane in flavors, some of these dishes I do make on a fairly regular basis but I have my way of making them that I have evolved over many years of cooking. The versions that I made for this menu could have come out of my mom’s kitchen back in my childhood. It was a wonderful way to revisit a simpler time when things seemed to make a lot more sense than they do right now.
I peeked at the next page in the book and one of my all time favorite dishes is the star of the show, Macaroni and Cheese, but the again the way mom made it and not the way I make it. So I am excited to eat that one next week.
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