"California" means different things to different people.

The first recipe in the book is California Casserole.

"California cuisine" has become ubiquitous, almost passe, but in the 1970s, it was a novel idea. By the 1980s, it had very nearly taken over. Seafood could be served in ways other than "breaded" or "fried." Avocado began to show up everywhere. Oranges made their way into green salads. "Fusion" became a household word.

Because The Casserole Cookbook was published in 1971, though, it came along a few years before "California cuisine" meant fresh fruits, lightly cooked vegetables, Latin and Southwestern influences.

The California Casserole was published well ahead of this trend.

This is the California Casserole:

2 lbs of round steak
1/3 cup of flour
1 tsp of paprika Why? Seriously, can someone tell me what ONE TEASPOON of paprika--plain paprika, mind you, not Hungarian or smoked--could POSSIBLY do for this recipe? Growing up, my mother put this on cottage cheese to give it "some color." I was never clear on why cottage cheese needed to be colored, but whatever. Anyway, I can't really understand what this paprika is going to do for ANYTHING in this recipe.
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper Yes, for God's sake, be careful, you don't want anyone to hurt themselves. Between this and the paprika, you could get yourself sued!
1 can cream of mushroom soup Here we see a major player in many casseroles. I'm not casting aspersions on this most noble of soups--it can really tie things together. But, yeah, it's a casserole staple.
1 3/4 cups of water
1 3/4 cups of cooked small onions How small is small? Are we talking pearl onions? Regular onions, but of the runty variety?

Cut the steak into 2-inch cubes. Mix the flour and paprika and dredge steak with flour mixture. Brown in small amount of hot fat.

Now, wait a second. Although I am happy to see the introduction of one of my favorite ingredients in this cookbook, I'm upset to see that you didn't say anything about fat in the ingredient list. And what kind of fat am I supposed to use here? As this is California Casserole, I am inclined to imagine bags of liposuctioned fat, just sitting in the creator's refrigerator, waiting to be poured into the pan, for the browning of the steak, made oh-so-flavorful by the powerful paprika.

But I digress.

Add the salt and pepper and place in a large casserole. Add the soup and water to drippings in skillet and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Pour over steak and add the onions.

DUMP.

That is what I would say as I poured nearly two cups of runty onions onto my overly spicy, fat-browned, soup-slathered steak.

This is it? THIS is California Casserole?

But wait! There's more!

There are DUMPLINGS. So one gets to say DUMP again. And then, quietly, "ling."

Dumplings:

1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of salad oil
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp poultry seasoning Why isn't there beef seasoning? I cry foul. Or FOWL. Ha ha ha, I'm so funny.
4 tsp baking powder
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion flakes
1/3 cup melted margarine
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

Okay, now I get the California theme. I read this and instantly thought "Mojave," as it contains dry ingredients. Lots and lots of dry ingredients. In fact, by the time I got to the end of this list, my blood had turned to dust.

Mix the milk and oil. Place the celery seed, poultry seasoning, baking powder, flour, salt, and onion flakes in a large bowl and mix well. Add the milk mixture and stir until mixed. (The word "mix" has appeared four time at this point. That bothers me for reasons I can't quite explain. Thesaurus, anyone?) Drop by tablespoons into margarine to coat (because the oil wasn't enough), then roll in bread crumbs.

Wait, WHAT? you're making bread and then covering it in bread? Why didn't you roll the beef cubes in desiccated beef, or creamed chipped beef, before covering it in soup? You're really not thinking outside the redundancy box of redundancy, here.

Place on steak mixture. (Cover up those runty onions, lest your dinner guests tell everyone at The Club about you.) Bake at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes. 8 servings.

So, "California" apparently has to do with cooking your beef twice, first in "fat," then in the oven, after you have covered it up with dwarf onions, doused it in soup, and blanketed it in breaded bread.

WATCH OUT FOR THAT PAPRIKA, KIDS. IT'LL GET YOU.