National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day

I love Pineapple Upside Down Cake. They are not hard to make but I have only made one in my entire life. It was for Christmas Dinner in 2001. 

The cake got pushed to the back of the counter and forgotten.

 (Look how young and thin I once was!)

 When I finally remembered it,  it was looking a lot more Christmas-y than before.

If you are making a Pineapple Upside Down Cake to celebrate today, 

have a bite for me.

  

No Spam, Ma'am

Has there ever been a food product more maligned than SPAM?  Monty Python's Flying Circus used it in a skit.  Surely it was a zonk prize on Let's Make a Deal.  David Letterman quipped about SPAM-on-a-rope in case you got hungry in the shower.  

Like bologna, SPAM was another one of those "meats" I would not eat while growing up.  (I'm not about to start eating it now, either!)  The neatest thing about SPAM was the way you opened it.  There was a little key on top of the can that was used to roll a thin tin strip off the can which would sever the top from the can.  Mom would never let me open the SPAM.

Facts about Spam:

• SPAM was first created in 1937 by Jay Hormel who needed a way to package pork shoulder so it would not go to waste.
•  In a contest to name the new product, Kenneth Daigneau won $100 for his contraction of spiced ham.
• Since 1937, 7 billion cans of SPAM have been sold.
• People living in Alaska and Hawaii buy the most SPAM.
• 100 million pounds of SPAM were issued to the US, Soviet and European troops during World War II.
• Waikiki, Hawaii hosts the annual SPAM Jam. 
• SPAM has its own museum in Austin, MN.

 This is a cookbook of mine.  The copyright on it is 1953.  I love looking at the vintage pictures and reading the recipes used back then.  This is a picture from the cookbook.  Crown Roast Dinner from the Jiffy Cooking section. 

Here's the recipe.

  Crown Roast Dinner?  Really?  How can you think SPAM could look like this?

 from simpleanddelicious.com

Maybe that is why in this cookbook copyrighted some time in the mid-1970's (I lost the cover page!)...

the recipe was reworked and renamed.

The 1970's cookbook also has this recipe using SPAM.

It doesn't matter how you slice it - I'm not eating it!

SPAM facts gathered from www.butlerwebs.com/recipes/spam.htm and www.spam.com/

It has been a long time since I have joined my vintage loving friends at Vintage Thingies Thursday.  I'm going to join the party this week.   If you like vintage things, you will like what you see at Suzanne's.

Cooking Like a Pioneer Woman

Yes, I've been slaving over an open wood fire to cook our meals.  Or not...

Meet my best friend, Ree, the Pioneer Woman.  No, I've never met her, but she IS my best friend.  This is her picture from her Facebook page.  She would probably consider me a stalker instead of her friend.  

Ree has a blog, The Pioneer Woman, where she shares her life as a rancher's wife, a homeschooling mom, and what she is cooking for her family and ranch hands.  

Her recipes make my skirt fly up.  She uses that phrase, "make your skirt fly up" a lot in her blog.  I've got some of her recipes to show you but first I must caution you.  If you are seeing a cardiologist, are married to a cardiologist, have a friend or a relative that is a cardiologist, you do NOT want to tell them you are eating like this.  These recipes contain lots of cheese, butter, cream and sometimes (I need to whisper this) lard.

These are Three Cheese-Stuffed Shells with Meaty Tomato Sauce.  The recipe makes a huge amount.  This picture just shows the small casserole dish.  There was another LARGE casserole dish in the kitchen.  I served this dish with The Bread.   

 

  
Her cinnamon rolls are some of the easiest rolls I've made and they are awesome.  The ones pictured below are not frosted yet.  Just wait until you taste the frosting!  Before you make these, read her post Notes on Cinnamon Rolls.  If I had read that post before making these, I might not have had such a mess.  It definitely helps to let this dough rest and cool in the refrigerator before working with it.

Crash Hot Potatoes and grilled steak with Onion-Blue Cheese Sauce was on our menu last weekend.  I didn't have time to get the onions in this sauce caramelized but it was still yumm-o. 

Last night we had Sloppy Joes.  Hubs doesn't like sloppy joes, but he really likes these.  They make his eyebrows fly up.  That's how I judge our meals.  If Hubs raises his eyebrows, I know it's good.  When I've made a PW recipe, they usually fly up so high it actually looks like he has hair on the top of his head.

Other recipes I've tried but didn't snap a photo are pot roast and Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta.  This pasta dish is one of the easiest to prepare and best tasting pasta I have EVER cooked.  It is on our menu a lot!

Fixing PW's recipes might not take slaving over an open fire all day, but they sure taste like you did!

PS - If any of my family reads this, I would love to find Ree's cookbook under the Christmas tree...

Sometimes Things Go Awry

You know how it is.

Tonight I was making cinnamon rolls using this recipe.  If you scroll through the post at the link, you will see what Ree's cinnamon rolls looked like before she put them in the pans.  

Believe me when I tell you mine looked nothing like hers.  Mine looked more like a pale fat slug oozing...well, slug stuff.   I would have taken a picture but my hands were covered with slug stuff...er...cinnamon roll goo.

 My counter top looked like this...covered with cinnamon, sugar and melted butter.

I was worried that my cinnamon rolls were not going to be any good, but I put them in the oven anyway.  They didn't look too bad.

But how would they taste?  Even though they had not been frosted, they were yummy!  Oozing cinnamon, butter and sugar...

The counter top cleaned up nicely and a glass and bottle of wine appeared...