The Defense Center Secretaries Take Pride in Presenting Their Favorite Recipes

The Defense Center Secretaries Take Pride in Presenting Their Favorite Recipes, Family Day September 19. 1987

I’m not sure exactly where this one is from. The first page thanks the Secretaries of the Defense Center for their recipes and the back cover has the Westinghouse seal. There was a Westinghouse Defense and Electronic Systems Center in Linthicum, Maryland. Maybe it was given out by them? If anyone knows, let me know! There are a lot of shadowy government and defense organizations here in the Mid-Atlantic but that’s the biggest one associated with Westinghouse anywhere that I can find.

The contributors are not named which I found odd. Would this be secret information and they couldn’t? Some of the recipes have people’s names in the title like Jeannette Evans’ Blueberry Bundt Cake but that doesn’t always mean they are named for the contributor themselves. A small mystery! It especially stood out to me since it didn’t seem like the book was for charity or fundraising but instead was a handout for their family day.

I am leaning towards the book being from Maryland due to the smiercase cake recipe which appears to be for what we in Baltimore normally call “smearcase” (I have a recipe here that also appeared in the Washington Times) that is pretty specific to the area but there is also a recipe for Pig Pickin’ Cake which generally skews further south. There is also a Southern Crab Cakes with the note (maybe Maryland??) and Lemon Chiffon Pie (A masterpiece a la Maryland) so I am going to tag this book with Maryland and assume, unless told otherwise, I am correct.

Not sure what MS&TC was but they seem like a jolly bunch with their chili cookoff. Google turned up a few local results but this was a little too far back to be sure about anything.

There are a lot of desserts as usual but a pretty wide range from regional favorites to Lois Goodling’s Soft Sugar Cookies.

Despite the lack of names and commentary about the recipes it really is a solid cookbook with a nice range of dishes, well organized, and a good mix of complicated and very simple recipes from Vernie Linthicum’s Crab Mold to Walnut Chicken to St Joseph’s Day Omelet to the mysteriously named “The Snap” and Pieorgi.

I adapted an unknown contributor’s recipe for Tomatoes Vinaigrette from this book.