While the typical housewife might clip recipes from the newspapers and magazines, or consult The Fanny Farmer Cook Book or Joy of Cooking, both of which had new editions in the bookstores, like housewives today many of her favorite recipes came from the makers of packaged food. These could be found in booklets available by mail order from the manufacturers or printed on the back of the boxes. They also appeared in magazine and newspaper ads. Here are some of the Easter ideas that ran in ads that week.
Wouldn’t an Easter buffet of Lipton's noodle soup, a springtime fruit salad and assorted sandwiches with refrigerator cake hit the spot? Lipton graciously shared a refrigerator cake recipe which included melted chocolate and raw egg on alternating layers of vanilla cookies. Chilled overnight it was served with whipped cream and washed down with Lipton’s Tea, of course.
Carnation suggested Golden Eggs 'n Peas which was a sauce of flour, butter, Carnation evaporated milk and Worcestershire sauce over wedges of hard boiled eggs, tomato rounds, peas and toast.
Movie and radio star Frances Langford we learn was serving Hoenshel's Brandied Fruit Cake this Easter.
“Aunt Jenny” shared her pineapple parfait cake recipe for Easter, made with Spry pure vegetable shortening. This fictional, trademarked character also hosted a popular daytime radio show.
How embarrassing. Jell-O and Royal Pudding both featured Easter egg pudding in their ads. It was vanilla pudding with candied eggs in whipped cream nests on top. Alas, we learned that Jell-O is in short supply due to sugar rationing.
Alleluia! Velveeta cheddar was coming back. As the Government needed less cheddar, there was more for the consumer. For Easter breakfast, try toast croustades, poached eggs in center of toast covered with sauce made of a half pound of melted Velveeta and 1/3 cup of milk.
If you were able to find one, you could decorate a canned smoked ham. as Armour suggested, with daisies made of toasted almonds with candied cherry centers pierced with white cloves and then covered in a glaze of brown sugar and corn syrup.
While the big time meat packers might not have been able to get hams to the grocery stores and butcher shops, somehow they managed to stock shelves with their canned processed ham and pork products like Hormel’s Spam, which was spiced pork shoulder and ham in gelatin. Hormel was the dominant force in the pork packing industry but similar products also available to the 1946 housewife were Armour’s Treet, Honey Brand Party Loaf, Broadcast Redi-Meat, Swift’s Prem and Hormel Spiced Ham. Army surplus canned meat was also available. The April women’s magazines were filled with ads with ideas for sprucing up these yummy loaves for the holiday.
How about spam and eggs broiled or fried for Easter breakfast or spamwiches for supper?
You could make a Spam dutch-oven dinner by browning spam and then adding onions, carrots, potatoes and water. Cook slowly. Serve with fresh peas and gravy made from bouillon cubes or stock.
Or try Spam 'n macaroni loaf. You alternated layers of Spam slices and macaroni in a loaf pan and baked in a pan of water. Serve it with broccoli "blossoms" accented with your favorite sauce
Wilson's MOR was another canned pork product you might have had on your emergency shelf. Make a MOR salad plate by cutting the loaf into 8 to 12 slices and arranging them around a tossed vegetable salad of head lettuce, curly endive, watercress, cucumber and radish slices and tomato wedges and covering it with French dressing. For dinner, make a glazed MOR roast with sweet potatoes. You put the contents of two cans together in shallow baking dish, scored it in diamond shapes and stud with cloves, just like a ham. Garnish the edge with piping of mashed sweet potatoes. Place whole cooked sweet potatoes around them. Pour a hot glaze of brown sugar, hot water and butter over the sweet potatoes and drizzle the liquid over the MOR. Then bake at 350 for 25 minutes. It served 8.
Make Johnny Cake shortcake with Treet. Split hot cornbread and put sizzling fried Treet in between and on top. Melt Cloverbloom Cheese in white sauce and pour over top. Garnish with stuffed olives.
Armour reminds us that Easter starts at breakfast, a great time for Treet with poached eggs.