Ham Salad Loaf

Three words that you should never see in the same sentence, let alone as the title to a recipe.

I made this Ham Salad Loaf in December when friends invited us over for supper and asked me to bring a salad.  I don't think this is what they had in mind.

It doesn't look like much of a salad and it definitely didn't taste like much of a salad.

So here is the recipe.  I'll admit it, I know that these friends are really good sports so I picked one of the grossest sounding 'salads' in the book.

 Believe it or not I had most of the ingredients in the house already, so that made making the recipe just a little bit easier.

















 Here is what the jello looked like after the HP sauce, mustard and the spices.  After this stage I was supposed to let the jello start to set before adding the mayo and the ham.  Simple enough.

 So once it was partially set, I added the remaining ingredients exactly as the recipe said to and it turned out perfectly.

                                                                                                

I did decide not to top it with more mayo, as I figured we didn't need the extra fat :)

I know you are all dying to know what it tasted like, and to be honest it wasn't too bad. It was sweet and savory at the same time with just a bit of a kick from the HP sauce.
Each adult at the table tried a bite of the 'salad' and although no one asked for seconds, no one gagged either, so I figured that was a win.

I will never make this salad again, but it was fun to try it out and to experiment on my good friends.  I have warned them that they maybe guinea pigs for me again (I know that I am risking my friendships this way...but it is just too much fun!) 

I'm still cooking from the treasury so keep coming back to see what's been going on!

Thanks guys and gals!!

Tomato salad

Ok, I was nervous, I will admit it.  I was having new friends over for the first time and I decided to pick a dish from the Treasury to try. This is tricky, I am just getting to know this family and I am subjecting them to new foods, and potentially strange new foods, so I picked what I thought would be a pretty safe bet.
I picked a tomato salad found on page 60 of my copy of the Treasury.  It was very simple to create, the entire recipe is 5 sentences and just as many ingredients.  I prepared the 'salad' and I explained to my friends about this culinary experiment that I was trying and they were very happy to participate.
And you know what? The salad was pretty good. It really wasn't a salad, more of an appetizer, but rather tasty none the less.

Here is the recipe

Here is what it turned out like

My friends said that the slight sweetness that the sugar provided really matched well with the vinegar and onion.  And that the recipe was correct when it says 'paper thin' onion slice, they thought any thicker than that and the onion would be too strong.

I think I would try this recipe again, perhaps served with a plate of cheeses and crackers as an appetizer instead of a salad, but I think I would definitely serve it again.

Not sure yet what the next recipe will be or who will share it with us, but I'll keep you all posted!

I have always loved to bake and cook, ever since I was a little girl. It probably had something to do with the fact that my mother is a cook and baker.  If you need a meal cooked, a banquet catered or a recipe, my mother is the person to go to.  She has been cooking for fundraisers, schools and churches for as long as I can remember.  She would always convince me to help her with her cooking endeavors and I would always readily agree.  I would love to spend hours in the kitchen with my mom preparing meals for others, reading recipes and making up our own as we went.  One of her go to cook books was, and very much still is, The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes.

 This classic cook book filled with tried and true recipes was so worn that it no longer had covers, there were notes written in every margin and each blank space had other recipes scribbled in.  Some pages had been so used and spilled on that you could barely make out the recipe, then again those pages were mostly memorized already and consulted only as a formality.

I loved this cook book as a kid.  So when I saw it on the shelf of my local Ten Thousand Villages store in Saskatoon this past June I quickly bought.  I love thumbing through the recipes looking for the next one to try.  And that is when I decided that I would cook my way through this wonderful cook book.

Now here is the catch.  As much as I love this cook book, it has some quirks that may make cooking my way through it rather interesting.  This cook book was published in the 60's, a time of jellied food and easy casseroles.  Many of the recipes also take for granted that you know a lot about baking or cooking and they use many vague phrases like ' mix until it feels right' or 'add just enough flour' (without giving a quantity). So the results could be...interesting.  I will be picking recipes to make, following them to the best of my ability, with no changes or alterations, hosting friends to try the recipes and then blogging about them.

So come back often to check out what I'm cooking next.  I'm going to end this post with a quote from the introduction:
        "By the time the book was on the drawing board it was decided to add a chapter of Mennonite recipes. Many of these originate from times of want and austerity and are no longer in use but may be of interest for coming generations, perhaps as inspiration to adventurous cooks."

Consider me inspired!