April 3, 2012

Bunnykins (and a Retro Recipe using Leftover Ham)

Recently, while rummaging through my mother's closets and cupboards, I found this set of Bunnykins dishes.I must have always been a foodie because this was my own little set of dishes when I was a little girl and I loved them!The bunnykins designs started in 1939 and they were drawn by a Catholic nun.
Bunnykins are still made today.
Just looking at this little mug makes me want some hot chocolate.This one was my favorite. (Or maybe it was just the one I was allowed to use most often.) You know how I know?
I noticed something interesting after I pulled the plastic bags off these dishes.Two recipes! Of course I had to make one of them right away......a ham salad sandwich with a couple of twists. Besides the usual suspects (mayonnaise, onion, chopped pickle or relish, and mustard) this recipe calls for horseradish, shredded carrot or cabbage, and shredded Swiss cheese.
The horseradish gave it a little zing. The shredded carrot added a nice crunch. And the cheese? Well, isn't everything always better with cheese?

MEAT SALAD SANDWICHES
(recipe printed on a plastic bag circa early 1970's)

You can use cold cooked beef, ham, pork, chicken, or turkey as the base for this sandwich filling (I used farmhouse cider ham).

1 cup chopped cooked meat
1/4 cup shredded carrot or cabbage
1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
2 tablespoons sliced green onion (I used minced red onion)
5 tablespoons mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
1/4 teaspoon each, prepared mustard and prepared horseradish
salt and pepper
4 hamburger buns
Butter or margarine

In a bowl, mix together your choice of meat, carrot, cheese, and green onion. Also combine the mayonnaise, pickle relish, mustard, and horseradish. Stir dressing into the meat mixture until well blended, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate several hours so flavors mellow. Just before serving, split and toast the buns; spread each half with butter and then fill buns with the meat mixture. Makes 4 sandwiches. (homegrown countrygirl note: I forgot to toast and butter the buns. Also, in my opinion, this only makes 2 sandwiches... but they were very good!)

2 comments:

Candy C. said...

First of all, I absolutely LOVE your Bunnykins dishes, they are sooo sweet! Maybe we will see them featured in more food photos soon! ;-)
Second, I hate, hate, hate buying processed lunchmeat but still want the convenience of a sandwich and I get tired of tuna salad, chicken salad and egg salad. I have some leftover pork roast that I think would work very nicely in this Meat Salad Sandwich recipe! I like the addition of the carrot/cabbage, horseradish and cheese! Thanks for sharing!

homegrown countrygirl said...

Candy C ~ Oh, yes! Leftover pork or beef from a roast is so good, isn't it? I like to make pot roasts often, all year long, partly just for those delicious leftovers that can be re-invented into so many other yummy things!