Family Dinners - Italian Spaghetti / Orange Salad (2) / Half Time Spoon Rolls / Danish Pie

We're going to have a lot of these this week. I'm so excited - Camille & Family are due here momentarily and Coray & Family are coming to dinner, too. We're having our annual family get-together for the 4th of July. It's a big deal in our family because that was the day that my parents met at a dance in Moroni. My dad said to his parents, "That's my blonde"; and the rest is history.
For dinner today, I made "Italian Spaghetti." The note on this recipe was, "Daddy brought from back east." My dad worked in Philadelphia for several months because he couldn't find work close to home. He was an electrician. I remember him being gone, but I was very small at the time - probably 4 or 5 years old. I imagine that true Italian spaghetti was unusual here in sheltered Utah and might have been quite a unique thing, for him to bring the recipe home to Mother. I can imagine him having dinner with a family there, and asking for the recipe.

ITALIAN SPAGHETTI
4 cloves garlic
1 big onion
Salt & pepper
1 can tomato paste
3 cans tomato sauce (small)
1 can tomatoes (big)
1½ lbs. hamburger
1 can mushrooms
1st brown garlic then brown onions. Put in hamburger with cooking oil. Cook until meat turns dark brown (in frying pan - mix up other stuff in separate pan - heat it up and add the meat (all except mushrooms). Cook 1½ to 2 hours or until meat settles to the bottom (stir every few minutes). Add mushrooms and cook about 5 minutes longer. Cook spaghetti about 5 minutes longer than it says on package.

With so many coming to dinner, I decided to take advantage of people to eat a large jello recipe. This one was actually attributed to me, but I'm sorry to say that I don't know where I got it. I do remember making it, though, and I have it in my little book of favorite recipes, too. I actually used two cups of marshmallows - can never have too many, in my opinion. And I used two cans of oranges because I wanted to be sure to have enough.

ORANGE SALAD (2)
Partially set the following:
2 pkg. orange jello
2½ cups water (boiling)
1 cup orange juice
4 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup miniature marshmallows

Fold into semi-set jello:
1/2 cup maraschino cherries
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 or 2 cans mandarin oranges
1 cup whipping cream whipped

Can't have a nice dinner without hot rolls. I've made many of the recipes in the collection, but here's one I've been wanting to try. Wow, were they easy, and quick. Notice the muffin tin - it was Mother's.

HALF TIME SPOON ROLLS
Dissolve 1 yeast cake [2½ tsp. dry yeast] in 1/4 cup lukewarm water. Combine:
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup scalded milk
Cool to lukewarm by adding 1/2 cup cold water.
Blend in 1 egg or 2 egg whites and the dissolved yeast. Add 3½ cups sifted flour. Mix until well blended. Cover. Let rise in warm place until double in bulk 45-60 min. Stir down dough, spoon into well greased muffin tins 1/2 full. Let rise about 45-60 min. Bake at 400°F 15-20 min.

For dessert I made (yesterday) at strawberry pie with a cream cheese layer between the crust and the pie filling. The filling was made with Danish Dessert - which is not all that easy to find in the grocery stores. It's near the Jello, but all stores don't carry it. This was a really good pie, and got thumbs up from the men - the true test of a good pie.

DANISH PIE
2 cups cold water
2 3-oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 pkg. Junket Danish Dessert
3 tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup sliced sweetened strawberries, well drained
Add Danish Dessert to water. Boil just 1 minute. Then cool at room temperature until lukewarm. Meanwhile, cream the cheese with a wooden spoon; add sugar, salt, vanilla & mix well. Fold whipped cream into cheese mixture and spread on bottom and sides of a cooled baked pie shell. Reserve about 1/4 of mixture for garnish. Fold strawberries into cooled Danish Dessert and spoon into cheese lined pie shell. Chill 3 or 4 hours. Garnish with a border of cheese mixture.