Posted on 03/07/2008 6:57:55 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Last fall, my husband's Mormon family invited us over for a potluck. Potlucks are a big deal for Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, and my in-laws are no exception. Naturally, I wanted to impress them. Naturally, I cracked open The Essential Mormon Cookbook, by Julie Badger Jensen.
Unfortunately, no matter where I turned in Jensen's cookbook, I was called to commit atrocities. After flipping past Jell-O recipes that involved suspending melon chunks in a trembling, plutonium-green blob ("Loveable Lime Jell-O"). After skipping everything that called for a can of Campbell’s soup into which meat, noodle or bean was thrown to either sink or swim. After pondering the dredging of chicken breasts in Russian dressing, apricot jam and dry onion soup mix ("Amazing Apricot Chicken"). After mulling the hithering and thithering of salads with mini marshmallows, pineapple tidbits and Craisins. And after toying with, then quickly dismissing, the possibility of making a cheese ball (dry ranch dressing, chopped chives and cheddar strings), I gave up.
(Excerpt) Read more at maisonneuve.org ...
That’s is, alright. Bird’s custard.
Is there a toasted grain drink called Pero?
Would that be Virg's?
The best ever!
They sell Pero in Utah grocery stores. It tastes much like Postum. Look for it. :-)
Ditto for me also, although it’s been more like about 35 years for me. ;o) I think nowadays it’s more of an Mormon myth.
There are various malted grain drinks such as ovaltine, bournvita, horlicks etc. Is it a milky drink?
http://www.ovaltine.co.uk/en/article.asp?chco_id=23
I have never heard of Pero
I've made this - it really is amazing!! Too bad the author feels these things are below her.
This woman obviously doesn’t get out. If she had gone to the Midwest, she would have found the same types of dinners and potlucks at the churches there, with the same recipes. It is called comfort food. What a food snob she is.
I made trifle for a Christmas ward dinner one year. It didn’t make it out of the kitchen. :) And sad to say, I love Jello. I have discovered sugar-free Jello, so now I can enjoy it without all that sugar....
Remember the tater tot casseroles? When my oldest nephew was born, my sister and her husband had a different version of tater tot casserole every night for a week. That and Jello. :)
The sad part about sugar-free Jello (and sugar-free Jello pudding) is that it melts pretty quickly at room temperatures. If you pack it in your lunch w/o refrigeration or an icepack, it turns into soup by lunchtime.
Comfort food? Heh...
My first experience with Iowa was when I was 12 and came out for my great-grandmother’s funeral. The Lutheran church funeral meal consisted mainly of “ham salad sandwiches” - I think it was spam spread on white bread with a half inch of BUTTER on the bread - and “jello salad”. We Pittsburghers were kind of horrified...
Thank goodness when I moved out to Iowa a year and a half ago I found that’s not all they eat out here. Ugh.
I once submitted some recipes to a cooking type magazine (I had a cookie one published so they asked for more submitions) they were doing a 'kids' fave/fast dinners theme. I got kind of a terse letter back (after submitting recipes that had had either canned or packaged soups or my fave Rotel canned tomatos as ingredients) stating that 'today everyone wants fresh ingredients only' and I thought, yeah every working mom is out there buying the argula daily. LOL...I cook my creme soups...my Mormon mother-in-law would be proud!
Any pierogies in Iowa Jen? Lol...they are ‘lowfat’ if you don’t count the butter :)
LOL! I’m not a native ‘burgher - we moved there when I was 6 - and I just can’t get pierogies. Never been a pasta fan or a mashed potato fan so the combo makes me sad.
What *is* funny is that in Cedar Rapids, most of the locals are fans of the U of I sports teams. The colors? Black and yellow. Same yellow as the Stillers. I keep having to look twice at the logos on peoples’ gear.
Ham sandwiches seem quite a standby at lots of events in Britain from wedding receptions to funerals to business meetings.
I guess the overall blandness is what I object to in English cooking. The ‘sun never set on the British empire’ for a LONG time. That’s a whole world of seasonings! USE THEM! :)
I also dislike scones or ANY pastry that is so dry that it has to be dipped in tea.
In my opinion, tea goes well with a cigarette, but NOTHING else.
Ham paste or sliced ham? Sliced ham sandwiches are nice. Ham paste - blech.
My family’s roots are all English (my grandmother was English until she married my grandfather) but thankfully our cooking is improving :)
Snugs, a Mormon Meal from my Grannie.
Rolls, not Briskets.
Roast Pork, with a Bread Apple Dressing, served with Apple sauce.
Roast GERMAN POTATOES, red potatoes.
Green Beans, with an Almond/Lemon butter sauce.
Squash with butter and brown sugar.
Parsnips with butter and brown sugar.
Cakes and pies for desert.
Sundays were great.
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