Mad Rush Salad

From Marguerite Patten's Meals Without Meat, 1964

8 oz grapes
2-3 oranges
2 bananas
1 eating apple
lettuce

Halve and pip the larger grapes, leave the others whole.
Peel two oranges and slice across thinly.
Peel and slice bananas.
Peel, core and thinly slice the apple.
Mix all together in a large fruit bowl.
Serve on bed of crisp lettuce, with vinaigrette sauce.

Or you could leave out the lettuce and eat it with cream... And use seedless grapes.

Casserole Peas

1 can sliced mushrooms (drained)
2 packages (10 oz.) frozen peas
1 can mushroom soup (undiluted)
14 oz can bean sprouts (drained)
4 oz. can water chestnuts (drained and sliced)
toasted almonds, grapenuts or other crunchy topping

Combine all ingredients. Place in greased casserole dish and top with crunchy topping. Bake at 325 F for 20 minutes. Makes 8 generous servings. Can be assembled ahead of time and refrigerated, allow a little longer to cook if cold.

This is from a little book called Try it you'll Like It that I bought in a charity book. It's probably unobtainable. Fortunately.

Potato and Cheese Fluff

From the St. John's Cook Book, 1997
Ingredients
1 1/2 lb potatoes
4 oz grated cheese
3 eggs, separated
1 oz butter
2 tbsp cream
Salt and pepper

Oven 200 degs C, 400 degs F, Gas Mark 6

Peel, boil and sieve the potatoes. Beat together with cheese, egg yolks, butter and cream. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Fold lightly into the mixture. Pour into a greased, straight-sided dish and bake for 30 minutes. Serve with green vegetables.

This is one of those booklets put together to raise money for a good cause. You could add chopped parsley to the mixture.

Milk Jelly

Jelly Mould, Milk, to make
Woman's Own Book of the Home, 1932

Ingredients
1 pint new milk
1 oz sugar
1/2 oz gelatine
1 tablespoonful brandy

Place the milk, sugar and gelatine in a white-lined saucepan, stir over the fire until the sugar and gelatine are dissolved, taking care the milk does not boil. When cool add the brandy, pour into a wetted mould and turn out when set. Stewed fruit or jam may be served with it.

The Woman's Own Book of the Home is a wonderful work, with recipes for everything from how to wash lace to how to address letters to royalty.

Cottage Pie

In an English country ga-arden

From Delia Smith's original How to Cheat at Cooking, 1971
Ingredients
1 15 oz can of savoury minced beef
1 tablespoon of dried minced onions
1 small green pepper, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of dried mixed herbs
Salt and milled black pepper
1 15 oz can of Italian tomatoes, drained
1 packet of instant mashed potato
2 oz of grated cheddar cheese
Some butter
Preheat over to 350 degrees F (mark 4)

Grease a pie-dish with a butter paper. Mix together the mince, onions, chopped green pepper and mixed herbs. Season with freshly-milled black pepper. Pack the lot into the bottom of the pie-dish and arrange the tomatoes on top. Make up the mashed potato according to the instructions on the packet then beat in the grated cheddar cheese and a knob of butter, and some pepper and salt to taste. Spread the potato over the meat and tomatoes (and make pretty patterns with a fork if you feel like it). Sprinkle the grated Parmesan over and put a few small dabs of butter here and there. Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes.

That's Delia's original recipe. She forgot to list Parmesan in the ingredients. Parmesan, peppers and freshly milled black pepper were very modern and sophisticated in 1971. Peppers never grew in any English cottage garden! You could use Marks & Spencer's superior tinned mince, and a real onion. And, of course, real mashed potatoes as instant mash is revolting, though we thought it was very modern and labour-saving back then. "Grease a pie-dish with a butter paper" - this is never necessary, and it's an instruction left over from the war, when butter and marge were so scarce that you saved your butter papers.