1940's

I've always enjoyed listening to our grandmother's tell stories of growing up during the war, from Jeremy's grandma telling about the rare coke they would get (in glass bottles, obviously) to my grandma making her wedding dress out of a parachute (which I had the honor of wearing 51 years later on my wedding day), so I was excited to try some food typical of what they would have eaten. That was until I actually opened the book and realized that indeed, they WERE resourceful, often eating every part of the animal. I do realize that when your belly is hungry you get far less picky, but honestly, I think I would happily turn vegan before eating some of the things they did. I was going to have to pass on the lynx (even if it was soaked in wine for a month) , the "White Market Lamp Neck Casserole" and "Boiled Tongue" and settled on "Patriotic Pinwheel Meat Roll" , green beans and "Sheila Hibben's Orange-Lemon Pudding Cake From Florida" (naturally...). The Pinwheel Meat Roll has a biscuit base that you roll out and then top with a ground beef mixture of cooked ground beef, onions, eggs, breadcrumbs, and seasoning (think meat loaf before you cook it) and spread over the uncooked biscuit dough and rolled up and baked. It is sliced after cooking and served with cream gravy. The book said that you can serve it with sour cream for a 1990's touch, but I honestly don't recall ever seeing anything like that in the 90's.

So, the biscuit dough and I had a little disagreement in the process, so not the most beautiful looking thing, but I will say it was the first time I've tried any type of roll, so I was happy it at least resembled a rolled type item. I really liked this a lot actually. The boys ate theirs and had seconds, and they said "It's good" but Christopher said it wasn't leftover worthy. I'm not sure Ana even touched hers (typical).

So this was it sliced and on the plate. Of course I dug in and made good progress on eating before I remembered to snap the picture. The dessert was also good, but I've only ruined one dessert in Ana's lifetime (so I was informed under unfortunate circumstances last week). The recipe itself was considered a post war dessert, given the amount of sugar used. The top part was kind of cakey and the bottom part was kind of runny...like a lemon pie that didn't set up right. That's the only way I can describe it. And also, it's the exact opposite way it was supposed to come out , so I'm not sure what was up with that.

And...we enjoyed the music from the 1940s play list on Spotify.