I got the above book for Christmas and I started to read it this morning. Right away there were a few recipes that I have heard of- ‘Wacky’ Cake, Amish Pickled Beets and Eggs and 24 hour salad. The Wacky cake was made by a fellow church member a few years back for a church picnic. I heard her say to her son, ‘I made your favorite Wacky cake’. This was a joke between Bri, Sean and me every time we saw this lady. We even called her Mrs. Wacky Cake! This was popularized during WWII when many cake ingredients were short in supply and they made due with what they had. A few of the ingredients were white vinegar and vegetable oil. I remember making a cake with mayonnaise, must have been similar to Wacky cake and it was good too!
My husband’s mom made the Pickled Beets and Eggs several times a year. I think it was something her mom use to make too. I don’t recall making them myself. I like deviled eggs. A good hint from the book is to cook the eggs, drain the pot and then roll the eggs into each other until the shells start to crack. This makes it easier to peel them.
The 24-hour salad is a variation of ‘Ambrosia’. I’ve made this several times over the years. The book version calls for frozen sour cherries where I would used red cherries. They used cut up marshmallows where I used the mini ones. The cut ones are better as they don’t get as soggy. I’m just in the appetizer section (the cake was referred to in the intro), but I am having fun reading about the tried and true 121 recipes included here. I will be trying many of these and will let you know how tasty they are.
I like this part of the intro:

Some things are just crying out to be lost. Bad supermarket tomatoes. Sponge*Bob Square*pants Cereal. Breakfast at Mc*Donalds (I like it!).Halftime at the Super Bowl. Any recipe that starts with a can of cream of mushroom soup (they haven’t tried my tuna noodle casserole!). And don’t forget children’s books penned by celebrities and casseroles of overcooked broccoli.

This is by the editor of Cook’s Country magazine if you are interested.

Photo and recipe found here