Last night, as I griped about eating peanut butter on a leftover hot dog bun the night before…I happened to mention that my mother would make “Guns and Bullets” with hot dogs. (a dish I actually mostly hated) She was sure this was something my mother made up as a title for…pork and beans served with hot dogs. (no buns) I protested that no, this is what my father called it…that it must be an Indiana thing or a military thing. Military wouldn’t have worked on her…daughter of one branch, ex-wife to another. Like S.O.S. I protested.

In any case, when I asked my mother about the name as a child, I remember her explaining that the hot dogs were to represent the guns, the beans the bullets.

She proceeded to Google it. No dice. The search terms you would think to use…not choice when looking for discussion of convenience meals of really cheap food. Believe me, I checked. S0, I told her I would blog it so there would be at least one reference to it on the internet.

Here you go:

Guns and Bullets

Enough hot dogs for your family. Open enough cans of pork and beans (or veggie baked beans if you are vegetarian). Heat hot dogs. Heat pork and beans. You can even heat the hot dogs IN the pork and beans if you want. Serve on plate, slice of buttered white bread on the side optional.

So…if anyone else’s family called them guns and bullets…please comment so I don’t really think my family is a freak show without a tent more than I already do.

Potato Pancakes

2 cups mashed potatoes (either leftover or make some up with instant)
1 egg
1/4 cup Bisquick or flour
2 tbs grated onion
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together. Form into pancakes and fry in skillet with some oil/Pam. Serve with applesauce, sour cream, and pork roast if you are the sort.

From a 1958 Good Housekeeping Cookbooklet Hamburger and Hot Dog Cookbooklet purchased there…it seems appropriate to share the Rainbow Toss recipe first…really a macaroni salad. Ok if you see the circus tent illustration and think of the combo of sliced hot dogs and rainbow tossing…maybe too camp to even consider.

Hey, what can you expect? I have been sitting at the hospital since early morning with a mother who is having a really tough time and could use your prayers and good thoughts. Or I could. Or both of us. Or just all of us. So many people have so much more going on in their lives this week.

Rainbow Toss

1 8-oz pkg elbow macaroni, cooked, chilled
1 teasp salt
1 cup sliced celery, cut on angle
3/4 cup diced, pared cucumbers
1/3 c minced green peppers
1/4 c minced onion
1/4 cup sliced stuffed olives
1/4 c liquid drained from olives
4 chopped, hard-cooked eggs
1 cup cooked salad dressing
1 lb franks, thinkly sliced diagonally
2 teasp. prepared mustard
1/8 teasp pepper.

Mix macaroni with rest of ingredients. Toss well; refrigerate until chilled. Makes 8 servings.

Farrah Fawcett was the background girl to be when I was a child. The flipped hair…I have a picture of my attempt somewhere.  She was strong, interesting, smart, yet beautiful and popular. Really beautiful.Then there were the tv movies that brought issues like domestic abuse home and hope.  Yeah, I wanted to be her when I grew up…complete with Lee Majors.

Then Michael Jackson…there were the little kid Michael Jackson shows I saw here and there. Then…Thriller…the build up…the trip to my sister’s house (she lived nearby at the time and had CABLE!) I remember the drama, the goosebmps, the sheer wow factor…sitting on the dark floor watching this guy and some zombies. Of course, I had the album. And the Bad album. There was no getting away from him being part of the soundtrack of my life. I did a white glove thing for a while while finding out who I was at 13. I tried and failed for years to be able to moonwalk. Not only that…his birthday was the only celebrity birthday ever listed with mine.

I never was a fainting fan. I did get goosebumps every time I saw a live interview or live show on tv. He had sparkle…not just on his clothes. He turned it on and off but he had incredible sparkle. His performances are unforgettable.

So, just  a bit of my 70s and 80s childhood…and a feeling like I am indeed getting old and it isn’t just those “old” people on tv when I was a kid who die and make me sad.

They are darn good though.

1/2 cup bacon, diced
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
2 cups cooked green beans

Cook slowly for 10 minutes to an hour (if you start with uncooked green beans). Add a bit of salt and pepper if you are the sort.

Just in case you were wondering…here is how I make sweet tea.

10-12 black tea bags
3/4-2 cups sugar
1/2 gallon of water

Boil that up on the stove until the tea is dark and the sugar dissolves. Then dump into a gallon pitcher. Top off with cold water and/or ice. Chill.

Be mystified when you must rinse and repeat the next day…especially when your tea drinkers are suffering from southern homesickness.

Note: Instant sweet tea does not substitute for the house wine of the south.

Grab 5 or 6 green tomatoes. Rinse them off. Slice tomatoes in 1/4 inch slices. In a small flat bowl, throw a couple handfuls of flour (oh about 3/4-1 cup for you measuring sort), salt and pepper to taste. Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons of shortening, bacon grease, or butter in a skillet. Dredge tomatoes in flour mixture. Fry on medium heat until crispy on both sides.

Yummy! And as the new blogger in the family says “Can you make some fried green tomatoes again soon? I love them!”

So what better to serve on the blog than a Cheese Ball recipe from a Junior League of Montclair cookbook titled “Entirely Entertaining” from 1968? We are nutty enough in this family without the pecans, so generally skip them. I am all about simplicity and go with the crock packing method as well. Ok, and my cheese balls/cheese logs always end up looking distorted/defective-anyone have any tips there?

Nice served with some good crackers. Our current favorite: Wheat Thins Fiber Selects 5 grain or 7 grain-whatever they are–not the veggie ones, though I hear the veggie ones are tasty too.

Cheese Ball

8 oz package cream cheese
1/4 lb Bleu cheese
1/4 lb sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 small onion, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Mix all ingredients except the parsley. Roll into a ball and roll ball in parsley. Chill. (Note: This may also be packed in a crock without the parsley.)

I wrote. I submitted. I won. So did 20 other really fabulous folks. (REALLY wonderful. I am seriously honored to be in this group)

But, now, I can’t think of a thing for dinner.

Me: What is the best thing about my cooking?
YC: Your baking
Me: What about my baking?
YC: That it tastes good and I like your cookies.
Me: Which cookies?
YC: Those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kisses
Me: Not the Jim Bars?
YC: No, not the Jim Bars
Me: Anything else you want to say about my cooking?
YC: You also make Jim Bars good.
Denise: But you don’t like them
YC: I just never eat them. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them.

Compelling interview right? Ah well. I shouldn’t have tried while she is playing with some iPhone app.

We have an abundance of vanilla wafers so that helps too!

Toffee Refrigerator Dessert

6-8 servings

1 cup vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 sq unsweetened chocolate (I will have to sub cocoa and oil here)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nutmeats, finely chopped

Line bottom of 8-inch square pan or large freezing tray with half the vanilla wafer crumbs. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in slightly beaten egg yolks and melted chocolate. Cool slighlt and fold in stiffly beaten egg whites and vanilla. Spread over crumbs and top with remaining crumbs and nutmeats. Place in freezing compartment of refrigerator to chill for 24 hours. Mixture will become firm but not frozen. Cut in squares and serve plain or top each serving with a small scoo

We were also broke. I had lost my job while pregnant. Finding a new job 8 months pregnant is not easy. My mother had come to help out with the birth of my first born.

We were stretching pennies and got a 50 lb bag of potatoes and a 25 lb bag of onions at a produce stand. This led to many creative uses of these staples.

One of which has apparently gotten me a reputation with my younger children’s father…the stuffed onions. In all fairness, I enjoyed them, as did my mother and I did NOT make them. My mom did. I imagine you would like them too. But apparently, he did not. They are as big of a legend as the asparagus jell-o (though the stuffed onions are admittedly better than asparagus aspic-at least to a larger segment of the dining public)

Why am I rambling about this? Because the new 500 Delicious Dishes from Leftovers cookbook I got over the weekend (ok as new as one can get when something was printed in 1949) has a stuffed onions recipe! Yay! Not only that it has a picture (I will try to coax the scanner into life at some point soon) and a caption: Glistening stuffed onions on a favorite chop plate will intrigue your family and guests.

Yes, they will intrigue. But, warning, they may intrigue people so far into the future that they become a cooking: FAIL legend. Or a delight. Give them a try. I like them. They are frugal in any case.

Baked Stuffed Onions

6 Large onions
3/4 cup soft bread crumbs
3/4 cup chopped cooked chicken
3/4 cup thin white sauce
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup buttered cracker crumbs
Salt and pepper.

Remove skins from onions and boil in salted water, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Drain and turn upside down to cool. Remove centers of onions, leaving shell sufficiently thick to retain shape. Chop onion which was removed from center and combine with remaining ingredients except buttered cracker crumbs. Stuff onion shells with mixture, sprinkle with cracker crumbs, and bake in moderate oven (350 F.) until onions are tender-~40 min. Serves 6.

Roast Beef Salad

1 cup diced, cooked beef
2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 small head lettuce
French dressing or mayonnaise

Toss first three ingredients together. Serve on lettuce with French dressing or mayonnaise. Serves 6. Use diced cooked ham, tongue, or corned beef instead of the beef if desired.

From 500 Delicious Dishes from leftovers, 1949

Macaroni Salad

2 cups cooked macaroni
1 cup diced celery
1/4 cup diced cucumber
1/4 cup diced sweet pickle
1/4 cup diced American cheese
1/2 pimento, cut fine
Mayonnaise to moisten
5 green peppers

Chill ingredients and combine. Chill for several hours. Serve in pepper cups. Serves 5.

From 500 Delicious Dishes from Leftovers, 1949

Just in case you have missed it…the blogger here is a lesbian. Yes, a lesbian, with a blended family of six kids (3 “hers” and 3 her “partner’s”), my aging mother, a couple of dogs, a bird, a betta fish, and a lot of cookbooks.

Yes, we look like the family next door except for the three adult women and no adult men living here. We grocery shop. We read books. We stress over making ends meet, shopping frugally, and raising good kids. We tell our children to clean their rooms and do their homework. We might have been sitting down the row from you at the children’s concerts or their plays. You wouldn’t have noticed us, unless you noticed the child being hugged by two or three mommies and a daddy after the event. Yes, our kids have a father in their lives. The younger kids more so, because they are younger after all. (The three older kids all are over 18 and don’t live at home anymore.) Or did you see us at graduation? Our 19 yo graduated from college last month. Did you see us when our oldest daughter got married? She married a handsome, hard-working young man in March.

We love our children and each other. Tremendously.

The children’s view on our relationship? 13 yo’s obsession with simile and things that go together sums it up: “You and Denise go together like peanut butter and jelly, like macaroni and cheese.”

We are a very lucky family and a happy family. We are a GLBT family.