It’s Wednesday again, and time for this week’s Mid-Century Menu! This week Tom and I decided to have a little fun and dive back into a cookbook that we found absolutely hilarious.
A victim of the “Western” phase, 101 Ideas for a Quick and Easy Lunch printed by Oscar Mayer has hilarious and ridiculous names for every dish smooshed into its 8 pages. You will all remember the delicious Bologna Papooses from last year, which turned out to be a big hit. In fact, I think a few readers actually make them on a regular basis! So we were excited to dip back in and try and find something else that would be just as good.
We decided on Sausage and Vegetable Ranch Logs, which sounded a little strange and had a stupid name, which made them perfect.
What the…does anyone out there know what the heck a “Ranch Log” is supposed to be? The only thing I can think of is that it would look like the wooden logs that make up your ranch house, but that is stretching it.
Anyway, I forgot to buy the spinach, but I got the shoe string potatoes for our Western Feast. Ride ’em, cowboy! Or something!
Yummy. Blocks of meat.
So, the first issue I had was that I don’t have a sausage grinder. So, I decided to make use of my food processor to get the job done. Here is the bologna chunks and cabbage getting ready for the big grind.
Adding in the onion.
The chunks of liver sausage are added with the salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Whew doggies! We have a shapeless mass of goo!
Ok, I didn’t mean to process it to this state. I meant for it to be in chunks with the liver sausage blending everything together as a binder. But the liver sausage was very firm and didn’t want to bind to anything except itself. Sooo….overprocessed. Yeah.
Here are the disgusting little slugs…I mean…LOGS ready for the oven. Yech.
And here is the log fresh from the oven.
Huh. It didn’t say in the recipe that it would turn into one big log. Maybe it is supposed to be magic, like the fudge sauce in the bottom of Hot Fudge Pudding cake.
The Logs all plated up. They kind of look like fish fillets…scary fish fillets…
The first bite, down the hatch!
“So, are they good?”
“Uhhh…these aren’t the worst things we’ve eaten. But they are pretty bad.”
I took a bite. Ugh. He was right. They had a really weird flavor, probably the mix of cabbage and nutmeg, and it tasted like stinky gym socks. It was pretty disgusting.
“Give me that mustard,” Tom reached over my plate, “I am hungry and I have to drown out the taste of these things.”
The Verdict: Awful. I thought the downfall would be the overprocessing of the ingredients, but it turns out that if something tastes like gym socks it doesn’t matter what the texture is. Yuck.
That is the weirdest sounding recipe ever! I guess it wasn’t magic like the Hot Fudge Pudding cake – bummer. It did kind of look like a funky fish fillet! Tom is the best – these aren’t the worst things we’ve eaten – I love it!
I think the combo of ground bologna and ground liver sausage would have scared me off from the get go! I continue to be amazed at the adventurousness of your and Tom’s palates!
Tom’s face says it all! Somehow, I don’t think all the mustard in the world is going to make the logs any more palatable. Kinda makes me glad I’m NOT an Oscar Meyer weiner!
You will never know how much I look forward to reading your cookling posts! I sit here and LAUGH OUT LOUD! Yall are too funny! Would like to have yall as neighbors!
hahahahaha your husband’s face cracks me up, he sure is a good sport to eat all these recipes each week 😀
Ooooh! My poor son! I hope you ordered pizza or something after that!
I have become totally addicted to your hilarious MC dinners! I am laughing tears every time! Please keep it up! And I have been inspired, so The Tuna Rice Pie from Better Homes and Gardens Casserole Cooking was on the menu this week. Utterly bizzare yet totally delicious! Looking forward to what’s cooking your side of the world next week!
Hey, Ruth, I have a question: have you ever come across a mid-century recipe that calls for an ingredient that is no longer available in grocery stores? Just curious…
…Maggie
Hey Maggie –
Yeah, I do come across stuff that isn’t available. Mostly it is just brands that aren’t around anymore. Like Spry. Most of the time that is an easy sub with a different brand of ingredient. But I do come across stuff that doesn’t exsist anymore or I can’t find in my grocery store. Like Heinz Apple Mint Jelly. In that case I just made a different recipe. Another one was Kraft Pimento cheese, which wasn’t available in my area. In that case, I just made my own.
Thanks for the question!