Frankfurter Friday- Frankfurter Pilaf

The recipe comes right out of my recipe card file. I noted on it that it was from Woman's Day Mag. 5/84. I have made this quite a few times and it is good, fast and frugal. I usually make it in a skillet instead of a saucepan. It is easier to saute the rice that way.

Frankfurter Pilaf

1/4 cup margarine
1 large onion, minced
1 cup uncooked rice
2-1/2 cups hot beef bouillon or broth
1/2 pound franks, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Melt margarine in large heavy saucepan. Add onion and saute until golden. Add rice and saute until translucent,. Add bouillon and franks and bring to boil. Cover and simmer over low heat 20 to 25 minutes or until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Frankfurter Friday- Hot Dog Mash

This would be a good recipe to try if you want potatoes with your franks but do not want to make scalloped potatoes. It is from Budget-Wise Dinners That Are Winners- Thrifty Main Dishes, 1979.

Hot Dog Mash

1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 pound frankfurters, cut into bite-size pieces
1-1/3 cup instant mashed potatoes
1/2 cup grated American cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese


Melt butter or margarine in medium skillet over medium heat; add onion, green pepper and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add frankfurters; cook, covered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, prepare instant mashed potatoes according to label directions to yield 4 servings; stir in 1/4 cup of the American cheese and 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese.
Place frankfurter-onion mixture in lightly greased 1-1/2-quart casserole; cover with potato mixture. Sprinkle with remaining American and Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Cookbook Purusings- No Depression Cake

No Depression Cake comes from the Chicken Soup for the Soul Cookbook. As you know this series is a compilation of uplifting stories with a theme. This one contains a recipe with each story. If you are like me and read cookbooks like novels this is a book for you. It is truly a combination of both.The No Depression cake is from a story by Dottie Walters. The gist of the story is when things are down instead of looking at what you don't have turn it around and look at what you do have and go on from there. The recipe is a genuine milkless, eggless, and butterless cake from the depression era. The author has this to say about it. "You can substitute other ingredients for any you don't have. The one thing this cake is full of, however is memories of cheerfully creating with what is at hand and on hand- and never giving up hope."

No Depression Cake

Makes 12 to 15 servings and lots of smiles!

1 cup white sugar
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups water
1 cup shortening
4 cups seedless raisins (if you have any)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups chopped nuts (if you have any)
Powdered sugar, to decorate
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9-inch baking pan. In a large saucepan, combine sugars, water, shortening, raisins, spices and salt. Boil together 3 minutes; cool.
Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda; add to saucepan, along with nuts. Mix well and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes.
Remove from oven. Let cool for 10 minutes, then turn onto a cake plate. When thoroughly cool sprinkle with a little powdered sugar, or mix lemon juice and grated lemon rind into powdered sugar for frosting.

Frankfurter Friday- Taco Franks and Mac Bake

I am moving my blog Hots Dogs, Wieners and Franks over to this one. It is just too confusing to have a bunch of separate blogs. Those recipes are vintage too, so they fit in here.
This is the intro I have on that blog: It seems like every cookbook or recipe booklet I pick up has a recipe featuring hot dogs, frankfurters, wieners or what ever you chose to call them. It could just be selective vision at work, I have frugal recipes on my mind lately.
This recipe is from Tried & True Money Saving Meals, 1981, from Creamettes and Borden. Creamettes brand is of course the makers of macaroni, spaghetti and egg noodles. This little booklet even features a section titled Elegant & Inexpensive. Sorry I have a hard time thinking of macaroni as elegant. The Taco Franks comes from the appropriately titled Money-Saving Main Dishes section.

Taco Franks And Mac Bake

1 (7-ounce) package or 2 cups uncooked Creamettes Elbow Macaroni, cooked as package directs and drained
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup margarine or butter
2 (10-3/4 ounce) cans condensed tomato soup
1 cup water
1 (1-1/4-ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 pound frankfurters, cut into quarters
Buttered soft bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large skillet, cook onion and green pepper in margarine until tender. Stir in soup, water and taco seasoning.; blend until smooth. Bring mixture to a boil; simmer 10 minutes. In large bowl, combine cooked macaroni, tomato mixture and frankfurters, mix well. Turn into greased 2-quart baking dish, top with crumbs. Bake 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 6 to 8 servings

Cookbook Purusings- Greek Mararoni Bake

The Healthy Gourmet International Cookbook- Greek Mararoni Bake

I have been seeing tahini as an ingredient in a lot of recipes lately. Today I came across this recipe in The Healthy Gourmet International Cookbook by Barbara Bassett. This is an older healthy cookbook published in 1982 by Bestways Magazine. The recipe seems quite up to date, using ingredients even more commonly used today than in 1982.

Greek Macaroni Bake
"Easy and very tasty"

2 cups uncooked wholegrain macaroni

1 tablespoon tahini

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

8 oz. feta cheese

1. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain. Rinse with cold water to cool. Toss with the remaining ingredients.
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a baking dish.
3. Place macaroni mixture in baking dish. Bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Serves. 8.

A Bumper Crop of Sandwiches

A Bumper Crop Of Sandwiches, is what this Kraft ad from 1974 promises. The scan did not turn out very well but in the original ad there are many different flavors of sliced sandwich cheese pictured. There are the standard American and Swiss along with Pimento slices, Cheez'N Bacon slices, Old English slices and Monterey, Brick, Onion-chive, Munster and Jalapeno pepper singles. Usually I only see American and Swiss slices in my grocery store nowadays, so I was surprised to see that they had made so many other flavors.
The recipes are for Ham Salad Boats, Ham Brunchwich, Italian Style Cheese Sandwich and Harvest Time Sandwich.
The Hams Salad Boat sound rather tasty:
Ham Salad Boats
2 cups finely chopped ham
1 cup cooked peas
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 hard cooked egg, chopped
Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
6 French bread rolls
Kraft Monterey Jack Singles Process Cheese Food
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ham, peas, onion, egg and enough salad dressing to moisten; mix lightly. Split roll in half lengthwise; scoop out center of both halves to form a shell. For each sandwich, fill shell with alternating amount of ham mixture and cheese food; cover with top half of roll. Place rolls on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees, 15 minutes. 5 sandwiches.

Banana-Bran Muffins or Snack Cake

I had some oat bran, whole wheat flour and bananas that I needed to use. So I looked in a notebook in which I keep lots of muffin and quick bread recipe clippings. I have had this recipe since 1987 so I guess it was time to use it. It is from Woman's Day 2/10/87. I made it as a snack cake in a 9x9 pan. It was very tasty.

Banana-Bran Muffins
1 large egg
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 large or 4 medium size)
1/2 cup raisins or chopped walnuts (I used raisins)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran or wheat bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 12 regular size or 10 if you want large muffins or line with baking cups. With a wooden spoon beat egg and sugar in a medium size bowl until smooth. Add bananas, raisins, oil and vanilla. Beat until blended then let stand 1 minute or so. Thoroughly mix flours, bran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add banana mixture and fold in with a spatula just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon into muffin cups and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until brown and springy to the touch. Turn out onto a rack to cool.