Cheered Up by the Mad Priests & Strange Recipes

Well, wasn't feeling well when I got home. Took some antacid but still a bit woozy. No clue why, as I'd not had much to eat today. Anyhow, I was still a bit stressed, so I surfed to see what I could find on the web, to cheer me up a bit.

This is what I found. Gales of laughter--well, during certain bits, anyhow.

So, I'm sitting here, sneezing. I've a closet in my front sitting room, and it's against the outside brick wall, and has an atmosphere more akin to a cellar--so, always rather chilly in there--which is why, on cold winter days, I had to take my clothes out of there early on in the morning, so they'd warm up a bit before I put them on. But every single time I open the door, in very short order, I begin sneezing...and sneezing. I reckon we might have a bit of a mold problem in there, or something. I have few allergies, but it seems I've developed something entirely new...or am encountering something I've never done before. Not that is bothers me much, just a mild annoyance--hard to type when your eyes keep watering.

I wanted to find an old sandwich recipe that my late mum used to make--thought it might be in her old Meda Givens cookbook, that she got as a wedding gift, back in 1950. It's quite a read, for us modern cooks. It was geared to the country cook, partially.

Nowadays, you want a chicken, or different cuts of chicken, most people just go to the supermarket or butchers. This book tells you to "pluck and singe" the chicken, before each chicken recipe.

Some of the odder recipes, I will list below:

SANDWICHES:

Bologna Frech Toast sandwiches (I kid you not.)
Peanut butter and watercress.
Toasted ham and banana
Ham and tuna fish
Sardines with peas and tomato sauce (served open face on toast)
cucumber, onion and pickle
Hot prune sandwiches (ummm--you could serve this to your gran, I suppose.)
parsley butter sandwich

SALADS:
Pear salad with peanut butter dressing
Fruit salad with sour cream and olive dressing
Tomatoes stuffed with kidney beans
Molded prune salad
tomato-anchovy salad
Peach, prune and cottage cheese salad
apple, turnip and celery salad
Hot baked beans and sauerkraut salad--and you'd better leave the windows open if you serve this one.

MISC.
Opossum and Sweet potatoes
Muskrat Fricasse
Roast beaver
"Ding's" Raccoon pie (I kid you not)
Squirrel pot pie--hey, a squirrel misses that high tree limb in your back yard--dinner!
Woodchuck pie

FISH:

Codfish balls (Okay, not going there)
French-fried frogs legs (try saying that three times fast)
Tuna fish and eggs ala king

DESSERTs:
Orange-buttermilk jelly
Broiled grapefruit
Vanilla ice cream with orange-prune sauce
Chop Suey Sundae: Chopped chopped prunes, peaches and dates cooked in syrup and served over vanilla ice cream.
prune ice cream (oh, bet that was a big hit)
mincemeat ice cream
avacado ice cream
baked prune pudding (no need for laxitives with these old time recipes, ey?)
corn flake kisses (cookies/biscuits)

There's more...but don't get me wrong--there's also some wonderful old-time recipes in there, as well--especially the desserts. Today's gourmets haven't really invented anything that's truly new--it's all been done already, for the most part, anyhow, one way or another.