Spaghetti & Meatballs (1937); F.F. Onion Rings; Ice Cream Log; Plapple

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SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS

   Who has a date for this?  Does OED have only two meatballs?
   Jean Anderson's AMERICAN CENTURY COOKBOOK notes that: "In the beginning (around the turn of the century) Italian-American restaurants did not serve meatballs with their spaghetti."
   I'm back on the Clementine Paddleford NYHT column trail.  From the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 4 January 1937, pg. 20, col. 7:

_2 New Dinners Offered in Cans;_
_Beef Stew and Spaghetti Balls_
(...)
   To greet the New Year on the economical side of the budget are two new dinners in cans, 15 cents each, here from the Middle West.  One is a beef stew, the other a spaghetti with meat ball mixture.  Both tins contain one and one-half pounds, or a sufficient quantity to serve three guests, each a good-size helping.  Families of two find a whole meal in the contents of a can.  We weighed the meat content of the spaghetti with meat balls and it came to almost half a pound.  THe spaghetti is tender, the sauce well cooked and richly seasoned.

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FRENCH FRIED ONION RINGS

   From the NYHT, 5 January 1937, pg. 10, col. 7:

   ONION RINGS--French fried onion rings, sweet and crisp, are selling in small bags for ten cents.  Nothing offers more honest delight for a cocktail munch tray.  Or heat them for a moment and serve over a thick broiled steak.  No bother and they taste like the French chef kind, dipped, crisp and glistening from a kettle of hot fat.

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ICE CREAM LOG

   From the NYHT, 6 January 1937, pg. 22, col. 5:

_Log-Shaped Ice Cream Cakes_
_Offer a New Idea in Desserts_
(...)
   Call this tree cake dessert a Christmas hangover, just what it is, but better now than during the holidays when pudding and fruitcakes occupied our thoughts completely.  These cakes take their name from the manner in which they are made.  Long strips of pastry, so thin they are almost transparent, are laid one upon another, about eight layers, with a filling between.  Next the cake sandwich is rolled into a hollow log, the spirals of the filled layers showing at the ends like the age lines that circle the wood in the trunk of a tree.  The log is finished with a glase of apricot puree; sticky to the fingers, but lickin' good.  Cut the trunk across the end into thin slices and serve these filled with whipped cream with jam or fresh fruit folded in.  Or ice cream and tree cake are natural affinities, like frankfurters and sauerkraut.
   A dessert to serve now, while the tree cakes are still in town.  Some of these can be had in great lengths.  One called a Baum Kuchen that comes from Germany is fully two feet high.  You can buy the whole thing for $5 or order it by the pound for $1.25.  Another type comes from Switzerland and is called tower cake, just to be different, no doubt.

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PLAPPLE

   From the DAILY NEWS EXPRESS, 24 May 2001, pg. 2, col. 3:

_Discovery of plapple causes a flapple_
   Was this the work of Johnny Plappleseed?
   British botanists are buzzing about the discovery of a fruit tree that bears apples on one side and plums on the other.
   Dubbed a "plapple" tree, the (Col. 4--ed.) specimen is said to produce green apples on some branches and sweet plums on others, the Times of London reported.

(In the spirit of "Frankenfood," why not call it a "Jekyll-and-Hyde" tree?--ed.)