Rawleigh, "piquant" sauces, and plenty of soybeans

When I found my 1944 Rawleigh's Good Health Guide Almanac Cook Book, it was tied together with another treat: the 1946 version!

I love that the man and woman inspecting a flower as their cat tries to telepathically signal its desire to be fed is "From a Noted Italian Painting," but not one so well noted that Rawleigh feels compelled to credit Eugenio Zampighi as the artist. It's so well "noted" that my half-assed Zampighi Google searches didn't turn up the title of this particular work.

Even though World War II was over (as was most of the rationing) by 1946, this booklet was written and printed before it was clear that that would be the case, so it still has quite a bit of the wartime vibe I noted in the 1944 version. It still recommends victory gardens.

Those gardens can yield the ingredients for an exciting Cabbage Casserole...

...which is just cabbage covered in a "Piquant Cheese Sauce" that has nothing to make me think that it could possibly be very piquant. What is sharp pungent about butter, flour, milk, cheese, and a bit of salt and pepper?

Rawleigh seemed to have a very loose definition of piquant, in any case.

I guess the bit of lemon juice gives the "Piquant Sauce" over this summer squash at least some claim to the title, even if it still mostly just besamel (Greek version of white sauce with an added egg yolk). 

There are still plenty of ways to stretch the meat budget, like making sausage into Sausage Shortcakes.

They're precursors to fast-food breakfast sandwiches!

There's also a nutty way to stretch the meat in sandwich fillings.

Everybody loves a good old Ham-n-Peanut, right?

Or you can stretch dinner with soybeans.

I'm not sure why this chili isn't further filled out with some tomato, but at least it has chili powder! The aversion to seasoning beyond salt, pepper, and maybe paprika if the writers felt like going crazy had me wondering whether the chili would have any flavor at all.

And finally, of course, we can combine ingredients from the last two recipes (mayo and soybeans) to get a weird sandwich filling.

I have a feeling one of my health food cookbooks from the '60s or '70s has a Soybean Salad Sandwich that's pretty similar, but it probably replaces the mayonnaise with some concoction based on nonfat dry milk.

And now, to wash the blandness out of your mouth, I'll end with my favorite part of this particular booklet: the Very Happy Veggies!

I guess they're all so happy because they have not yet been draped in some version of a white sauce, but feel free to speculate if you have a better idea.