Death or Dumplings?

It's cold. It's snowy. You're down to nothing but canned goods and a few staples. You could make it simple and just starve to death. (January makes that option seem more attractive than it really should be....) You could venture out and risk freezing to death. Maybe you're an optimist and wonder if you can make something without moving too far from the nest of fleece and faux fur throws on the couch.

Maybe Betty Crocker's Dinner in a Dish Cookbook (1970) will help.

Almost entirely made from canned ingredients? Cream of chicken soup, canned Lima beans (I love their insistence on capitalizing this!), jarred pimento, and canned "pork luncheon meat." (Betty didn't make Spam, so she dared not speak its name.) Check.

Only a few other staples? Flour, milk, oil, and crushed potato chips. Check.

And suddenly the options to freeze or starve to death start looking even better.