Bad Recipe Flashback - 1983

While rifling through my old recipe box searching for my great-aunt's recipe for barbeque sauce- one she'd concocted for venison which I guess was more plentiful than chicken in the Wisconsin Dells in her day- I discovered a recipe my grandma passed on to me. Like most of the recipes in the box, I never stirred this one together. Most of the recipes I collected in those days were dreams of meals that would one day be prepared when the doggone recession ended and we all got rich making music and MTV videos.

This recipe is a nightmare though. A reminder of getting by on government offerings of basic foods. My grandma volunteered to distribute the canned pork, boxes of dry milk, bags of rice, and those infamous blocks of government cheese. Grandma had lived through the depression so she knew something about making due with what was on hand. I don't know if she created this recipe (probably not) but she gave it on to me in her own handwriting with the review of "good" written on the corner of the notepaper. Today, I share this with you.

Government Cheese Candy a.k.a. Chudge

Step 1

1/2 # American Cheese

2 sticks or 1/2 # butter or margarine

Melt in double boiler or microwave

Step 2

Sift together in large bowl 2# powdered sugar, 1/2 cup dry cocoa

Step 3

After the cheese + butter is melted stir in sugar + cocoa mix

1 teaspoon vanilla + mix good.

Put in flat pan to cool + cut in squares.

Makes about 3#

Yes, I had tasted this mess at Grandma's house. I accepted a pound of it with the recipe, though I thought it was, perhaps, the worse abuse of cocoa ever invented.

Enjoy.