When the Carbs Come Marching in

March means that I've been yelling "Yeah! It's winter! I get the idea!" for several straight months now. And the world has generally been indifferent. So let's check in with Cincinnati Celebrates: Cooking and Entertaining for All Seasons (Junior League of Cincinnati, first printing August, 1974, though mine is from the 1980 fifth printing) to see how the Junior Leaguers recommend dealing with the wintertime blues.

They say to have a Calico Bridge Luncheon. I'm not sure how authentic Swiss Cheese Bread and Angel Pie are to "pioneer Americana," but considering the group's ideas of "early America" for February's Presidents' Day celebration, I wasn't expecting much.

There's no Sherry Cobbler recipe, so I assume the ladies liked the usual sherry/ simple syrup/ orange wheel combo, as long as there was enough sherry to make them forget, however briefly, that it was still winter.

I thought that Junior League types might have been wary of carbs, but the rest of the menu suggests they longed for carbs just as much as anyone else holed up for a midwest winter. Hungarian Rye Bread Soup is just what it sounds like: soup made out of rye bread.

The rye bread is puréed not just into bouillon, but into bouillon fortified with instant mashed potatoes for that extra carby boost early March requires.

And if the bread soup is not enough, well, there's non-soggy bread to go with it.

Add a few marinated veggies to balance things out with some acidified carbs.

And then finish it all off with some sweet and fluffy carbs.

This menu shows the Junior League had the same instincts as pretty much everybody else by this point in the year: hole up in the den and put yourself into an alcohol-and-carb coma until it's at least possible to trick yourself into believing that spring is coming....