Checking out the non-Czech parts of St. Ludmila

Previously, we looked at a bunch of Czech recipes from St. Ludmila Parish (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1975), but the book has plenty of other offerings. The cooks seem a bit less certain about recipes from non-Czech backgrounds, offering things like Mexitalian Spaghetti Sauce.

I'm not really sure what puts the "Mex" in the title. Maybe Mrs. Hal Schulze just thought that any recipe with tomatoes, onions, and green peppers was somehow at least kind of Mexican?

Even more amusing is that the recipe for straight-up Italian Spaghetti Sauce seems arguably more Mexican than this one.

This version has Tabasco sauce in it, so at least it's got some heat. (Okay, with only a quarter teaspoon of Tabasco in 1-1/2 pounds of meat, plus tomatoes, etc., it's probably closer to the suggestion of some heat.)

If you want something more American (and very 1970s), there's American Cheese Fondue.

My favorite part about this concoction of butter, milk, American cheese, pimiento, flour, and dry onion soup mix is the parenthetical opening instruction: "(Soak soup in 1/4 cup water; I don't do it.)" I assume that this means the recipe that Irma Kelly originally got from somebody else instructed this, and she found the step unnecessary, but it sounds kind of like she's trying to make sure that her recipe remains the best one, saying "Hey, if you're making it, water it down unnecessarily right from the start."

The book also offers some of the cute little "recipes" for things like preserving a friendship or making a happy home. Such recipes are generally saccharine and unmemorable, but Recipe for a Sweet Disposition got stuck in my head.

I expect conceptual ingredients, so "common sense" and "contentment" seemed right at home. A large heart also makes its own kind of sense if we're thinking conceptually, as it can be a stand-in for ideas about love, caring, and forgiveness. The good husband seems a little too straightforward, but I guess it's easier to have a large heart and be content if one isn't married to a monster. The good liver, though...? Is this a veiled confession that it's way easier to have a sweet disposition if you drink a lot? 

Well, I guess everyone needed to find some way to get through days spent hanging houseplants from macramé owls, yelling at the kids for grinding cheese Tid-Bits into the shag carpeting, and trying to decide whether the spaghetti sauce was more Italian or Mexitalian.