I like an occasional pork chop. It just seems like dinner at home.

4 loin pork chops
salt and pepper
2 medium-sized onions, thinly sliced
1 1 pound 3 oz can tomatoes, drained
Heat oven to 350. Place chops in a heavy skillet over moderate heat and brown on both sides. Place chops in a 2-quart casserole. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add remaining ingredients. Cover. Bake 45-50 minutes until chops are tender. Serves 4.

Not so much retro except for the fact it is very like the dirty rice of my youth (except much easier) and uses canned soup. I made this in my Sunday cooking spree and it went over enormously well. It reheats fabulously. I have made dozens of different dirty rice recipes and haven’t ever hit on one worth making a second time, until now.

1 lb white long grain rice
1 lb soy crumbles (like the Boca crumbles) Actually equiv. to 1 lb ground beef
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can French onion soup
2 cans water
1 tbs Old Bay (or Cajun spice blend)
1 tsp cayenne pepper (you may want to skip if you are using Cajun spices)
1 chopped bell pepper
2 stalks chopped celery

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 11 x13 pan with Pam/nonstick spray. Mix rice, soups and crumbles, bell pepper, celery and spices in pan. Mix in water. (ok you can mix it in a bowl and then dump it in the pan, but I am all about less dishes.) Cover tightly with foil and bake for 70 minutes or until rice is tender.

We are on a squash kick this week. Did I mention it was on sale? Here is a very simple baked squash.

Baked Squash-Mrs John Houser
2 pkgs. frozen sliced gooseneck squash or 2 lbs fresh peeled squash; 4 strips bacon, 1 onion, prepared bread crumbs; salt and pepper to taste

Boil squash in about 1 cup slightly salted water. In skillet fry 4 strips bacon unitl crisp. Remove bacon and drain. To bacon drippings add 1 onion finely chopped. Saute until tender. Drain squash in colander. Add squash to bacon drippings and onions in skillet. Mash squash with fork while stirring. Cook slowly about 10 min. Add crumpled bacon strips, salt and pepper to taste, 1 heaping tablespoon bread crumbs. Place mixture in casserole. Top with bread crumbs. Bake in 350 oven until bread crumbs are brown.

In case you were in a news free box yesterday, you probably heard that Kellogg’s is scaling back their advertising to children under age 12. While I have strong feelings about children eating a healthy diet, I also appreciate the joys of Saturday morning cereal commercials. Ok, so I know that kids these days don’t just watch a couple hours of cartoons on Saturday morning and so the exposure to the kid targeted toys and cereal is much greater. On the other hand, it seems sad that Toucan Sam and Apple Jacks will be off tv until they get reformulated. So in honor of kid’s marketing and cereal…Space Cow

Some of you may remember the Tuna Fondue from back in April. You know, the fondue that wasn’t fondue but rather more like a tuna casserole. This is a similar dish…more a ham and cheese casserole and more appealing than the tuna. This is very retro comfort food and a good, thrifty way to stretch that last bit of ham to feed the whole family. I am still baffled about the whole name though. The original recipe seems to have been published in Redbook in March 1966.

Ham and Cheese Fondue

2 cups coarse white bread crumbs, tightly packed
1 cup milk
¾ cup coarsely shredded Cheddar cheese
¼ cup butter or margarine
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon salt
4 eggs, separated
¾ cup cooked ham, finely diced

Mix together bread, milk, cheese, butter, Worcestershire and salt in top of double boiler; place over boiling water and cook until cheese is melted, stirring occassionally. Cool slightly. Heat oven to 350° F. (moderate). Beat egg yolks well and gradually stir into cheese bread mixture; fold in ham.
Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry; fold into cheese mixture. Pour into greased 2-quart baking dish. Bake 40 minutes, or until firm. Serves 4 to 6.

We eat a good amount of squash in our house. I really wish I had more luck growing it. I must be the only person in the world who doesn’t get excessive amounts of zucchini from a plant. This is a nice comforting casserole, nice if you have some leftover cooked squash. You can even use it to give a new look to leftover ratatouille or some squash tomato dish you cooked up. If you do make it with something that includes tomatoes, you might want to skip the mashing part.

Country Club Squash

6 or 8 tender, small squash
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
1 bouillon cube
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 egg, well beaten
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup grated cheese
Dash of paprika

Cut and cook squash until tender. Mash and add salt, pepper, butter, bouillon cube, and onion. Add well beaten egg and sour cream. Pour into 1-quart casserole dish. Combine breadcrumbs, grated cheese and paprika. Sprinkle over top of squash. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes.

This is a popular cake recipe from my great grandmother. There are a lot of steps, but really, it is worth it.

½ cup butter
½ cup sugar
4 egg yolks
½ cup cake flour
4 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons cake flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour which has been sifted before measuring alternately with milk. Sift remaining 2 tablespoons flour, baking powder, salt. Pour into 2- 8″ pans.

Meringue
4 egg whites
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup nuts

Beat whites to froth and then add light sifting of sugar at a time. When well mixed add vanilla. Spread on uncooked layers of cake. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Bake 20-25 minutes at 325-350° F.

Filling
1 cup whipping cream
½ tablespoon powdered sugar
1 cup crushed pineapple
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Place one layer meringue side down on cake platter. Whip the cream, add the powdered sugar, pineapple and vanilla. Spread on first layer and top with other layer.

I have a confession, I like spray cheese. I don’t get it very often, maybe once a year.

Mashed potatoes, spinach, in a spray can? Not really my thing though.

This is rather corn pudding like. You will like it! Really! Retro! Delicious! And…sometimes corn on the cob or mixed veggies with corn just gets boring. Instead of going with lime basil chipotle butter oddness…try this, you will be glad you did.

Corn has been on sale here in Florida lately and should be where ever you are pretty soon! If not, you can always use canned…though fresh is so nice in this dish. This is a nice way to stretch 4 ears to feed a whole family (though admittedly, I could probably eat the whole thing myself). You can even use 2 cups or so of frozen corn.

Dutch Baked Corn

4 ears fresh corn or 1 (No. 2) can corn
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Dash paprika
2 eggs, separated

Cut corn from cob. Melt butter; mix with flour and pour in milk gradually. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the corn, seasonings, and yolks of eggs, well beaten; then fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Put in a buttered casserole. Bake 30 minutes in moderate oven.

Mrs. Jack Bishop
Birmingham, Alabama.