Recipes that aren't quite what they should be

[ZipperJJ]

@teela brown

No. That was my mom’s idea of meatloaf, and I grew up thinking that meatloaf was a rock-hard, tasteless, dry boulder of baked hamburger. I hated it. To be fair to her, I think she associated “adding bread crumbs to the meat” with “underhanded corner butchers trying to cheat the customers by secretly adding filler”.

When I got married, I discovered that my husband was addicted to good meatloaf, so I learned how to make it properly. That’s when I found out that well-made meatloaf was the food of the gods.

Well to be fair to dad, he makes it like Mom now (which is like the Better Homes and Gardens version, I believe). Still without any flavorful additives. But I grew up thinking that meatloaf was just a delivery system for Heinz ketchup

I was astonished how much I like meat, too, when I started working in a good restaurant around the age of 16. Until then, I really didn’t like meat because dad did (and still does) like EVERYTHING well-done. Ack!

[devilsknew]

@devilsknew

I don’t think it was the typical American cheese from the salt caves, but instead a white mild mozz type cheese. Soo…Gooey!

I’m sorry if this is a bit convoluted to the yunguns. But “Government Cheese” or “Welfare Cheese” was one inadvertent governmental culinary masterpiece directly tied into the cold war. You see, the Government had these great stores of a very special American Brick Cheese stacked away in salt mines as a basic provision/staple because of their concentrated nutritional value. Bars of Cheesy Gold in case of Global Thermonuclear War, I tell ya. They rotated the stock and gave it away through government channels.

It made the best Macaroni and Cheese… there was actually a blackmarket underground for this cheese. Welfare folks who could get it would often trade it at astronomical rates.

Question: Does the USA still have massive stores of American Cheese in Salt Caves somewhere? Sperlunk.

[Litoris]

Oh yeh, growing up with a Yankee mother, “chicken-n-dumplin’s” at home was chicken noodle soup with egg/flour dough chunks and a can of veg-all. At Gramma’s house, it was traditional, my recipe is somewhere in between. My chicken-n-dumplin’s has the egg/flour dough chunks for dumplings, mixed into cream of chicken coups with frozen mixed veggies and a can of chicken breast, then seasoned like mad since all of those things are bland as bland gets. Sometimes, though, I still like the chicken noodle soup version with a bologna/cheese/yellow mustard sammich. Not often, mind you, but it’s happened.