Country Cookin' Gets Creative

Are you ready for some Country Cookin' (Ross Chapel Church, Bolts Fork, KY, 1977)? 

You might find the illustration of the be-aproned woman cooking on an old-timey cookstove to be charming, but I am worried about the cat getting tripped over or accidentally burned. My favorite thing about the cover is actually the name written across the top. I'm sure it's Peggy Kirk, but the mix of capital and lowercase letters combined with the odd shape of the "g"s makes it look like Pebby Kirk. 

Just like the "g"s in Peggy, the cooks in Bolts Fork seem a little bit tricky. If you see a dessert in an ice cream cone, for example, there's a pretty good chance it's not ice cream. It may, in fact be a pudding cone.

Or if it's a Tutti Frutti Parfait, don't expect tutti frutti ice cream. 

Nope-- a can of fruit cocktail, a cup of mini marshmallows, and a cup of sour cream are the filler-- frozen, though, so you better be prepared to bite into frozen canned fruit.

At least these cones don't claim to be ice cream. Some recipes just blatantly lie, like the Sourdough Pancakes.

No sourdough in sight! Just pancake mix with added yeast, and certainly not aged long enough to turn into an actual sourdough...

Or look at Nine Cup Salad.

I initially thought it was only five cups since I saw five ingredients. Then I realized there are three cups of marshmallows, which would get it up to seven cups. There's no specification for the size of the can of fruit cocktail, but to get it up to nine cups, you'd need a 24-ounce can, which is not really a common size. My guess is that this was to go with the two-cup size, which would mean this is only an eight cup salad. (Or maybe there's a forgotten ingredient, like a cup of crushed pineapple or sour cream?)

My favorite blatant lie, though, is the Cherry Salad.

Graham cracker crust on the bottom, cream cheese in the middle, and cherry pie filling on top? This is a straight-up cheesecake! Putting it into a square pan does not make this a salad! 

Still, I can't blame the good people of Bolts Fork for wanting an excuse to eat cheesecake as a side dish and still have room for dessert. Somebody's gotta eat the pudding cones.