A little Hawaiian, a little German

Today's recipe is a bad recipe from a good cookbook, the Saint Maurice Parish Cookbook.  I have two editions of this cookbook.  The 1978 version is in such bad shape that I have it in a plastic bag to keep the pages together; the newer, undated version is still holding its own. This cookbook is a good source for tried-and-true everyday dinner recipes and for ethnic specialties.  While I searched for the recipe for the Strawberry Pretzel Salad that I have been craving, my wandering eye was captured by this unlikely - and unappetizing - salad recipe:



SAUERKRAUT AND PINEAPPLE SALAD

2 c. drained kraut
1 large can pineapple chunks
1/2 c. sour cream
1/4 c. seedless raisins
1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar

Toss together overnight. [This direction is verbatim.  I picture the weary housewife tossing these ingredients all night while the rest of the family soundly sleeps.]

Side note: St. Maurice is the parish where I went to Catholic school in the sixties, with the nuns in full habit, and no girls in pants (my mother was called to bring a skirt to school the day I daringly wore culottes!). The correct pronunciation of the name in Pittsburgh is mahr-iss, not mah-rees or mor-ris. St Maurice was an Egyptian who led the Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century to an area that is now part of Switzerland. The legend is that his entire legion of 6,666 men was ordered killed by Maximium for their refusal to battle fellow Christians; St. Maurice became the patron saint of soldiers, swordsmiths, and armies. Also, as per Wikipedia, "he is also inexplicably the patron saint of weavers and dyers, and is invoked against menstrual cramps."  Hmmmm.