V for Velveeta®

My mother came for a visit and brought with her a free magazine she obtained by signing up somewhere on a Kraft foods website. It has lots of recipes with handy shortcuts for the busy stay-at-homer, like sauteeing chicken in italian dressing instead of taking the time to marinate it. Because I didn't have the time to scan or digitize any of these recipes, I thought I would simply direct you to the Kraft Food Service website, where you can search for recipes by ingredient. I searched by "Velveeta" and got the following recipes. The results have images that pop up when you mouseover the name!

Bacon Sauce with VELVEETA®
Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes
Baked Potato Soup
Beef Salsa Soup
Beer Dip with VELVEETA®
Bistro Tuna Salad 'N Cheddar Bagel
Broccoli Cheese Strata
Cajun Corn Muffins
Carrots Au Gratin
Cheesy Bacon Grits
Cheesy Bacon Omelet
Cheesy Broccoli Soup

This post does not imply the author's support or endorsement of Kraft Foods, Inc., Velveeta®, or any related websites.

I like to keep my menu depression-era.

"This rich, spicy cheese spread appeared in some fashion in JofC from 1931 until the 1960s. The 1936 edition declared it 'a grand cheese spread for hot or cold sandwiches.'

Combine in a medium bowl:

One 4 oz. jar chopped pimientos, drained
1 cup mayonaisse
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp ground red pepper

Beat with a wooden spoon or an electric mixer at medium speed until blended. Add:
2 cups grated Cheddar (8 oz.)
2 cups grated Colby (8 oz.)
Beat until the consistency of cottage cheese.

Taking my cue from the 1936 edition of JofC, I served this cheese spread on a sandwich with roast beef, after frying all of it up, grilled cheese style, in a frying pan. An excellent use for those pimientos leftover from making "Build-a-Mountain".

"Build-a-mountain"

This is one of my family classics that I recently dug out of the recesses of my memory and plopped onto our dinner plates. It seems like a really gross combination of ingredients until you try it. Trust me. Note, however, that it is essential to include as many of the ingredients as possible to achieve the desired taste chemistry. The way my family set up the "buffet" was to put bowls of each ingredient in a row on the counter. Each one had a piece of paper with a rhyme to go along, explaining which part of the "mountain" the topping was to represent. Example: coconut is the snow, chow-mein noodles are...trees? okay it made sense when I was a kid, but the most important part is that you end up with a delicious mountain of food on your plate. My sister and I would be in charge of putting easy things in bowls and writing the directions (in crayon), complete with illustrations and arrows so as to keep any diners (our grandparents) from wandering the wrong way around the buffet and ending up with an inverted mountain. This is an essential recipe for this site, since it includes both cream of mushroom AND cream of chicken...in their purest form!

INGREDIENTS (recipe serves 8-ish)
2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
some milk (about a cup?)
chow mein noodles
3 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup chopped celery
(1/2 cup chopped green bell pepperl)
(1/2 cup chopped green onions)
1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
(1/2 cup slivered almonds)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tbsp diced pimentos, drained

DIRECTIONS

Make rice. It might be prudent to have all your toppings chopped or set out beforehand if you don't have a family of helpers to do it for you.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine chicken and mushroom soup concentrates with pimentos. Mix well and heat a little, then add enough milk to not make it totally disgusting that you're eating condensed soup. Basically you want it to have the consistency of pudding, not soup. Stir until heated through.

On each plate layer cooked rice, sauce, tomato, (other optional vegetables), pineapple, celery, cheese, chow mein noodles, and coconut. Every bite tastes different!

(The picture comes from a site with a recipe that is inferior to mine, as it has the pimentos on top instead of doing their proper job flavoring the sauce)

the "family party" at grandma and grandpa's

the following three recipes were served to me at least once a month from the time i could eat solid foods until i was 11, always on sunday afternoons, always on a plastic cafeteria tray, sometimes followed by store brand vanilla ice cream in a cake-cone, and always followed by at least one grandchild being checked for a concussion after falling down the basement stairs


potato salad:

five large boiled potatoes
one cucumber
radishes
green onions

cut above ingredients into potato salad sized pieces, sprinkle with pickle juice then mix together with mayonnaise, celery salt, mustard (if you like that), milk, regular salt, etc, etc

marshmallow salad:

prepare 1 small package jello lemon pudding mix (not instant and leave out the egg yolks), then add:
2 cans fruit cocktail (drained)
2 cans mandarin oranges (drained)
1 largish package miniature marshmallows
mix well and chill in refrigerator

before serving add sliced bananas and 1/2 pint whipping cream, whipped plain (no sugar added)

ham rolls:

one bag of small white rolls
ham
iceberg lettuce (optional)
mustard and/or mayonnaise

guests assemble sandwiches at their leisure. serve with potato/marshmallow salads, on cafeteria trays if possible