This month’s menu is going to be posted a little late, but this is what we ate for our Labor Day supper. It was a quick meal that is bound to be familiar to many of you.
The menu came from the May 1940 issue of Woman’s Day. The article was a round up of prize-winning reader-submitted recipes that included cheese as an ingredient. The main winner won $25 and several other readers won $2 for their recipe submissions. The menu for today includes a main dish from the $25 winner, Mrs. John C. Taylor of Battle Creek, Michigan. (A quick Ancestry.com search shows that Mrs. Taylor and her husband were living in Battle Creek during both the 1940 and 1950 censuses. Sometimes it is nice to know if the people I read and write about made it through the war.)
You can see the suggested menu in the picture above, but we adapted ours a bit. We made corn and fruit salad for sides and strawberry shortcake for dessert. I think potato salad would have also been a nice addition to the menu. You can find a wartime fruit salad here and a wonderful 1940s potato salad here.
We also used purchased frozen bread dough and used butter to brush the tops of the rolls. We used strips of cheddar cheese in the hot dogs. We did cut the hot dogs in half to make smaller rolls. I thought my 6 and 9 year olds would find them easier to eat that way.
Results
If you’ve ever had pigs-in-a-blanket, this is pretty much the same thing. I really liked the addition of mustard and cheese. Next time I think I’ll also try pepper jack cheese to give the rolls a little kick of heat. All of my taste testers enjoyed the rolls and they all came back for seconds. Buying frozen bread dough ensured these were speedy to make. You can always substitute sausage for the hot dogs if you want to change things up a bit. These rolls would also be easy to take to a potluck or to make for a Super Bowl party.
History in the Kitchen 