HISTORY: Preserved

These cookies have been on my Cooking on a Ration recipe to-make list for some time. They just sounded fun! And since when do you get to think about our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, while making cookies? Like, never. So, here's to you, Woodrow! These cookies were pretty dang good!
I couldn't find very much on why these particular cookies are attributed to Mr. Wilson, but I did find this interesting article about his wife!
Here are two websites that talks about U.S. Presidential recipes:
A Taste of the Past: White House Kitchens, Menus, & Recipes
Food Timeline - U.S. Presidents

Now about making the recipe -
The batter was suspiciously like brownie batter, and I didn't even put in all the liquid it called for. Then it says to shape the cookies using a knife wet with milk. I was wary of this method too. Luckily, the recipe gave me a little out - it said I could make them as bars, which was a relief! So, that's what I did.
And surprise! They turned out like cake. Wha…

It was time to try another recipe! I put this recipe on my June menu (I'm trying to be good about menu planning...), but I decided to try it today. I didn't have all the exact ingredients, but I made it work, which I think is the point about cooking while on rations.
I took this recipe for Upside-Down Meat Loaves from Meta Given's The Modern Family Cook Book published in 1942. I really love this cookbook, but I'll save my waxing poetical for a special post about it. 
This is actually just your standard meatloaf recipe, except you bake it in a muffin tin and there are apricots involved. Mixing fruit with meat isn't uncommon, but this was an interesting pairing, because in my experience, apricots can be kind of tart.
The recipe has you soak 10 dried apricots, but I didn't have any, so I just reconstituted some freeze-dried apricots I had. I think some fresh, dried apricots would have worked better, because you use them whole and they tend to be sweeter/sweetened…

This was a recipe I saw in one of my more recent ration cookbook acquisitions: The Wartime Cook Book. It definitely caught my eye! I mean, rhubarb and bananas?? Who does that? I was telling my friend and fellow WWII-era fan, Loris, about it and she told me that banana recipes were all the rage in the 1920s and 30s. I had no idea! After learning that it made sense. They had to try all the banana combinations out there, didn't they? haha! And you know what? This turned out to be a really interesting dessert.

The only improvement I'd make is to double the bread cubes. There wasn't nearly enough bread to soak up all the moisture, even though it doesn't seem like much liquid is added. A lot of juice comes out of the bananas and the rhubarb too, which I didn't really consider. I ended up adding more bread cubes after baking and that made it a lot more like a bread pudding. Next time I'll double the bread cubes.

I'll be honest. The color is nothing to get excited…