New Twist Dish

During the week a patron donated 8 garbage bags of cookbooks to the library. I went down to the basement and purchased a lot of very interesting 50's and 60's ones. There were still a ton left - entire sets of things, too!

This is from the 1965 Betty Crocker Dinner in a Dish. Casseroles are on my mind as I've been invited to judge a community casserole cooking contest. I could blog for weeks on this book alone, and I will in between some awesome guests coming up. I have a great recipe from my friend Terri from the Wauconda Public Library coming up, along with Molly Macrae Monday, and freaky foods from across the pond from my lovely coworker Helen, a Scotland native. Plus I'll be bringing out the green foods soon for St. Pat's. You've been warned!

In the meantime - New Twist Dish. Love that pot, and the celery in the vase/cup thing.

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/3 chop chopped green pepper

1 tbsp. butter or margarine

4 oz. corkscrew-shaped macaroni, cooked and drained. (Why does the shape matter?)

1 can (12 oz.) pork luncheon meat, cubed (help us - I think ground turkey would be fine here)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup catsup

1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 400F. Cook and stir onion and green pepper in butter until onion is tender. Combine with remaining ingredients. Pour into 1 1/2 qt. casserole. Cover; bake 30 min., or until bubbly. Garnish with twist of tomato, if desired. 6 servings? (look at that pot - that has to be like 12)

I think you could cook the veggies in olive oil; use whole wheat noodles, the ground turkey, and you'd have a really New Twist. And yes, I am the same person who loves dessert and spent the last several weeks talking about Cakes at area libraries.

I'm off to pick up food from three restaurants for the Ethnic Food Fest at STDL today. We are totally spoiled in the area with a rich diversity of Asian and Indian restaurants, who kindly donate food for the high school international clubs to serve. Fun event, but this year I likely won't be able to stand the entire time. The back is getting better, but that program will challenge it. Still fun to do, though.