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PET Milk 001Welcome to this week’s Mid-Century Menu, where I find the strangest mid-century recipe I can and I cook it up and serve it to my husband, who will eat pretty much anything.  And most of the time it is even edible.

This week’s recipe comes from Warm Weather Meals for 2 or 4 or 6 published by the Pet Milk Company in 1938. 1938 isn’t truly mid-century, but I just love this cookbook. Hubs and I bought this book when we were visiting his parents in Wisconsin. We were in this great antique mall, but all we did was look at vintage cookbooks for the Mid-Century Menu. This book was by far the “best” in terms of choices of recipes. Actually is really interesting, because the recipes are actually portioned out for 2 or 4 or 6 which is really nice. 

The bad thing is the pictures, which are….a little scary. Ok, they are a lot scary.  If you don’t believe me, here you go:

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Meatloaf nests filled with creamed noodles and peas. And this is the “Company Dinner”. Wow.

So, let’s get started!

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I love the first instruction: Light oven.  Wow, this book is old.  And I’ve never made meatloaf with oatmeal before.  My mom always used crackers.

Anyway, we decided to make the recipe for 4, so off we go!

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All the ingredients assembled and waiting to be destroyed.

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All mixed up and ready to go.  Why does meatloaf always look so disgusting when you are mixing it? Look at it. Braaaaains….braaaaaains…..

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Egg-shaped and ready for the depression in the center.

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A carefully placed “nest” for all the creamed noodles.

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What the??? What happened? My nests melted! Stupid cheap hamburger!

Actually, the 1 hour cooking time is FAR too long in this recipe.  It probably could have been cut down by 15 minutes. Maybe even longer.

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I’ve never, ever, EVER made creamed anything before. I wonder why that is?

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The butter and onions happily cooking away.

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Adding in the liquid from the canned peas. Good lord.

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Actually, the “cream” sauce turned out well. Reminds me of the great white sauce I did for the frankfurter pie, which basically ended up being a waste of culinary skill.  But I suppose you could say that about EVERY recipe here at Mid-Century Menu….

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The noodles and the peas join the “cream” sauce. Doesn’t look too bad.

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Volia! The finished product, meatloaf nests with creamed noodles and peas, ready to be eaten for dinner!

Besides the fact that I had greviously overcooked the “nests”, this actually was pretty good.  The meatloaf nests pretty much tasted like meatloaf, and the creamed noodles and peas just tasted like canned peas with some pepper in them.

The verdict: Good

I thought this was actually a really good meal.  I was scared it was going to end up like last week’s ham loaf, where it looked ok but tasted as if something horrible had gone wrong.  I ate quite a bit of this dinner, and actually enjoyed it.

Hubs shoveled down his portion quickly, but complained that it tasted “bland”. He said neither item really tasted like much. He said he was expecting something a little crazier.  I, on the other hand, was happy with the “bland” food. This probably is number #1 so far on my list, replacing the Bologna Papooses as the Best Mid-Century Meal Yet.

As a side-note, why are these two recipes considered “Warm Weather Meals”? I mean, that is the title, isn’t it?  I am pretty sure a hot slab of meat filled with a heavily creamed combination of canned peas and noodles isn’t warm weather fare.  And I had to turn my oven AND my stove on to make one main dish.

Bah.

Anyway, visit Vintage Thingie Thursdays at Colorado Lady for more vintage awesomeness!

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