Missionary Menus That Aren’t Quite Like Mom’s

by Laird Roberts

If they have to cook it themselves, dinner for missionaries so used to Mom’s good cooking can be a trying experience. Those two missionary companions are on tight schedules (with only an hour or less to cook, eat, and clean up), and they have even tighter budgets. Add the time and money pressure together with the fact that, for most of them, boiling an egg is a culinary feat, and voila—a very unique style of cookery.

Youthful and filled with the enthusiasm that they are world famous for, missionaries are known to have delved into the corners and the nooks of grocery shelves for that special buy and to have questioned every investigator, member, nonmember, and fellow missionary to come up with the perfect dinner plan. It must be easy, good, cheap, reheatable, and if at all possible, one-pan.

And many have achieved this ideal. For convenience, economy, and just plain good eating, it’s hard to beat some missionary recipes. Some are the products of necessity; others were acquired from worried mothers. Included in this article are several favorites like: Spring Fever Sandwich, Cupboard-Clean-Out Cake, Be-Good-to-Your-Companion Cookies, and Just-before-the-Check-Comes Casserole.

Spring Fever Sandwich

This sandwich is good in areas where fresh vegetables are readily available. Try any combination of vegetables and find what you like best. Then add milk or lemonade and a minute or two to eat in the sun.

You will need:

2 slices of bread per sandwich

2 or 3 radishes

3 or 4 slices of cucumber

Salt and pepper

3 or 4 leaves of lettuce

1/2 tablespoon of mayonnaise or butter per sandwich

Cut radishes and cucumbers into thin slices. Spread each slice of bread with mayonnaise or butter. Place slices of radishes and cucumber on one slice of bread, salt and pepper, add lettuce, and close the sandwich with the second slice of bread. Now enjoy eating.

Cupboard-Clean-Out Cake

Don’t waste those leftovers; make them into a scrumptious cake. Preheat your oven to 350° F Then mix all these dry ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/3 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Set this mixture aside. Now mix together:

1 cup salad oil

2 eggs

Now the good part: you will need 1 1/4 cups of leftover anything—tomatoes, carrots, apples, oranges, pears, casserole, potatoes, sauerkraut, peas—any vegetable or fruit will do. Chop the leftovers into small bits—puree if possible.

Now blend all of your ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Add nuts if you want to. Bake in a 9-inch pan at 350° F for 35 minutes. Glaze the cake while still hot with a mixture of 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 cup water.

Just-before-the-Check-Comes Casserole

First preheat the oven to 375° F. You will need:

1 12-ounce can red kidney beans, drained

1 12-ounce can lima beans, drained

1/2 cup tomato sauce or catsup

1 small onion, chopped

Dash of salt and pepper

1 cup cheese, shredded

2 frankfurters

Mix all ingredients but franks. Put this mixture in a 1 1/2-quart casserole. Slice the franks and place them in a star shape on top of the beans. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until beans are bubbly and franks are brown. This dish serves 4 to 6 people. Your leftovers will keep in the refrigerator about one week and are delicious reheated.

Be-Good-to-Your-Companion Cookies

This is an old-fashioned cookie recipe that will win friends and influence companions. It has been recommended that if there is not sufficient time or the members have been too generous with goodies, you and your waistline should not make this recipe.

First preheat the oven to 375° F. and grease (lightly) a cookie sheet. Now do the following:

Mix

1/4 cup butter or margarine

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

Chop

1/2 cup nuts

2 candy bars (candy bars with chocolate, coconut, or almonds are best)

Now mix all the ingredients together with—

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Drop a teaspoon of dough every 2 inches on the cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes. This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Catfish Stew

Hush puppies, black-eyed peas, and catfish are as much a part of the South as a southern accent. Elder Alden Breinholt from Bountiful, Utah, learned to make Catfish Stew from a family living in the back hills of North Carolina.

Preheat your oven to 350° F. You will need:

1 pound catfish (any fish can be used)

1/2 pound cheese

1 onion, diced

1 12-ounce bottle catsup

Dash of garlic powder

1 bay leaf

Cut the fish in two, lengthwise. Salt and pepper the fish, then place one layer of it in a baking pan. Place a layer of cheese and diced onions on the fish, another layer of fish on top of the onions, then add another layer of cheese and diced onions. Bake at 350° F for 10 minutes. Thin the catsup with 1 cup of water and add the garlic and bay leaf. Now pour this mixture on the partially cooked fish. Finish baking until the fish is flaky—about 30 minutes.

Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is an old English favorite. Because it makes use of stale bread, it has become popular worldwide as the great end of a good meal.

You will need:

3 apples, peeled, cored, and diced

1/4 pound butter or margarine

1/2 loaf stale bread (about 10 slices)

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Water or milk

Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook at medium heat. Water or milk are added while cooking until the right consistency is reached. A caramel sauce can be poured over it, but it is also great by itself. Cook the pudding until the apples are soft when pierced with a fork.

Dan’s Delight

Elder Dan Doerflien from Maryland learned to make this taco-style dish while serving in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission. Elder Doerflien and his companion, Elder Philip McKay from Texas, were the first full-time missionaries to serve in Provo, Utah.

You will need:

1 medium can stewed tomatoes

1 onion, diced

1 small can mushrooms

1 pound hamburger

Flour tortillas

Put all the ingredients, except the hamburger and the tortillas, into a pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer until it is thick. While that is cooking, fry the hamburger until thoroughly browned, then drain the grease from the hamburger. Use the grease in the frying pan to heat a flour tortilla. Spoon the other ingredients on top of tortillas. Add cheese and hot sauce if you like. Roll it up and eat it.

Lemon Bread

It was almost an hour’s drive through a maze of snow-feathered trees to get to the Cornings’ home. Sister Corning was my first baptism as a missionary. I taught my first discussion in that small, backwoods house near Rollingdam, New Brunswick, Canada. After a lesson Brother Corning would get his old out-of-tune guitar, and we would all sit around the oil-burning stove singing folk songs. The air would soon be filled with the tangy, sweet smell of lemon bread baking. Sister Corning taught my companion and me how to make that special treat.

You will need:

1/2 cup shortening or margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

Rind of 1 lemon, grated

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup sugar

Mix the ingredients, except for the juice and the 1/2 cup sugar, in the order given, then pour into a loaf pan. Put this into an oven preheated to 300° F and bake until done. (Stick a toothpick in the center of the loaf; if it is done, the toothpick will come out clean.) Mix the juice of 1 lemon with 1/2 cup sugar and pour over the bread while it is still hot.

Brisbine Italian Chili

What do you do when there are chili beans and tomato sauce in the cupboard but no chili powder? The only spice in sight was Italian spice when Elder Ted Brisbine from Wenatchee, Washington, was making chili one night in Houlton, Maine. The answer was (you guessed it) Italian chili. He liked it so much that he made it that way from then on. People from New Mexico and Texas get upset when they hear this recipe, but don’t let that stop you from trying it.

You will need:

1/2 pound hamburger

1 onion, diced

2 27-ounce cans red kidney beans

2 16-ounce cans tomato sauce

3 teaspoons Italian spice

Brown the hamburger and onion in a frying pan. Pour the grease off the hamburger and onion and mix the kidney beans and the tomato sauce right in the pan. Sprinkle the mixture with the Italian spice, then simmer over medium heat for about 30 minutes.

Rootbeer Pancakes

1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon salad oil

1/2 cup rootbeer

Sift together the dry ingredients. Combine the egg, milk, salad oil, and rootbeer and then add to the dry ingredients. Stir enough to mix well. Bake on a hot griddle on one side until bubbles appear, then flip the pancake over and lightly brown the other side. Makes about a dozen dollar-size pancakes or about eight 4-inch pancakes.

Photos by Laird Roberts

Missionary companions can be cheered with a little repast of candy cookies

A fresh vegetable sandwich would allow a missionary to write home and admit what he had for supper last night

Stirring up a batch of lemon bread stirs up sweet-tart smells in a preparation-day kitchen

There’s no reason missionary meals need to be drab. With a little imagination and some help from quick recipe books, any missionary who can boil water can be a chef of elegant cuisine; Mix the lemon batter thoroughly. If the window is open, the next door neighbors might catch the aroma and come visiting—you may find some unexpected contacts; Use a regular bread loaf pan for the lemon bread. But if you don’t have one, any shape pan that holds the batter will do

Even the lemon rind is used in the delicious lemon bread

The finished product is absolutely irresistible—lemon bread a-la-missionary is a recipe even Mom might want