Jay North will always be known as Dennis the Menace — a kid you grew up with, even though he never came to your house.

During his Dennis days, he and friend Jon Provost — he was your friend Timmy, alongside famous collie Lassie — would sneak off the Hollywood’s legendary hot dog stand, Pink’s, for chili cheese dogs.

Today, North recommends broccoli casserole. Provost is dishing up pot roast.

And thanks to Provost’s wife, you can enjoy these and tons of other recipes served by the child actors of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

Laurie Jacobson, author of “TV Dinners: 40 Classic TV Kid Stars Dish Up Favorite Recipes with a Side of Memories,” said despite being main dishes, the dinners are really on the side for a cookbook that Jacobson admits is more of a pop culture book with recipes than the other way around.

“I do not cook. At all,” she jokes. “I can scramble some eggs. Mostly I’m really not a cook — so the ease of some of these recipes really appealed to me.

“I’m much more interested in the kids and their stories and what they’re doing today, and the recipes are just a fun way to tie it all together.”

The hot dogs? Of course, Jacobson said. And it’s not a surprise tastes changed as the child stars grew up — and just like us, they DO grow up.

“We were eating comfort food back when we were watching those shows,” she said. “So many of the recipes are for plain old, ordinary, but tasty pot roast and things like that. But some of the kids really dug deep into their childhood and came up with childhood favorites that were so full of sugar that I got a little ill even typing them up.”

Jay’s Favorite

Broccoli Casserole

1 pound frozen broccoli, chopped or spears — cook, cool and drain

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup mayonnaise

1 can cream of celery soup

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sharp cheese, grated

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

1 Tbsp onion flakes

Mix all ingredients and stir in broccoli. Butter the bottom of a casserole dish and pour in mixture. Top with Ritz crackers and dot with butter. Bake 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

•••

In 1999, Jacobson married Provost after “My Three Sons” star Stanley Livingston succumbed to pressure from Provost to make an introduction. She’s lucky she had the chance — a particularly grueling episode of Lassie could easily have been his last.

“It was really shocking. There was one day he was tossed in a river. There five people there to catch Lassie and no one there to catch him,” she explained.

Jon Provost’s Family Pot Roast

2-3 pounds chuck roast, boneless or 7-bone

1 medium white onion

4 medium to large and 6 small tomedium potatoes

4 medium carrots

Handful fresh green beans

Handful white mushrooms (“Optional, but I love them,” Jon says)

Center stalks of celery with the tender leaves

4-5 beef bouillon cubes

1 cup water

1/4 cup ketchup

1/3 cup red wine

A little olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste (Jon “I think the dish makes all the taste you need”)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. We’re going to bake our pot roast for 2 1/2 hours. Bring water to boil in small pan; add bouillon cubes and stir until dissolved. Add ketchup and set aside.

Brown the roast in olive oil on both sides. Add onion (cut in eighths), pour bouillon mixture over all, cover and bake one hour. I “swirl” my pan about every 20 min., but be careful when you swirl! Add the red wine after the first swirl.

Hour 2: Add mushrooms (cut in half or quarter depending on size), carrots (cut 2 1/2-3 inches long) and potatoes (halved depending on size). Don’t forget to swirl! At the 45-minute mark, add green beans (cut or not), celery with greenery (cut 2 inches) and bake about another 45 min. You may want to adjust your cooking time depending on the size of your vegetables or how firm you like them. Other than that it’s a slam dunk. Enjoy!

•••

“Jon’s are my favorite because I eat those with some frequency,” Jacobson said. “His pot roast is devine and his curried shrimp puffs have won awards” — Best Hot Hors d’oeuvre in a celebrity chef fundraiser sponsored by Canine Companions, an organization that provides assistance dogs to those in need at no charge.

Speaking of benevolent organizations, there’s one that receives a portion of the profits from Jacobson’s book: A Minor Consideration, formed by “Donna Reed Show” star Paul Petersen in the wake of a series of tragic deaths — all suicides — of child stars of the era.

“I call him the Big Kahuna of the kid stars,” Jacobson said. “He was the first to notice and be affected by the fact that some of his peers did not prosper when their phones stopped ringing. There was nothing for them.”

Petersen got his small-screen break as one of the original Mousketeers in the Mickey Mouse Club. But he never had another full-time gig after Donna Reed.

Paul and Rana’s Healthy Gluten-Free Meatloaf

(serves 4)

1 1/2 pounds ground turkey

1/2 pound ground beef

1 egg

1 cup gluten-free potato chips (use a roller to mash them into flakes in

a plastic freezer bag).

Add chopped onions and garlic to taste.

Mix all in a large bowl

Shape to fit an oiled meatloaf pan.

Use fingers to make a trough in the top of that loaf.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 3/4 hours

Remove and add ketchup into the trough.

Bake for another 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Remove, let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

“I like the crispy ends and you’ll have plenty left over for meatloaf sandwiches if you’re cooking for two!,” Petersen said. Rana is his wife.

•••

Jacobson said just one actor she asked was unable to contribute — Ron Howard. Known today for his directorial efforts, he’ll always be fondly remembered in TV Land as Opie from “The Andy Griffith Show.” But his schedule didn’t allow for this project.

“A few people didn’t think they had much to give but I really wanted to include them in the book,” she said. “One who really comes to mind is Marc Copage from ‘Julia’ — a groundbreaking show in its time because of its Black stars.

“He gave a very simple salad recipe, but his story was fascinating to me,” she said.

” I am dying to try two recipes in the book and I have not tried them yet — one is Barry Livingston’s; actually it’s his wife’s dish. And then Jeannie Russell from “Dennis the Menace” submitted a recipe that she said everytime she brings it somewhere she’s asked to bring it again.” she said.

Her writing career includes another food-related tome, “Dishing Hollywood,” which moves seamlessly from mealtime to murder, featuring among others the restaurants where actor Robert Blake’s wife and Nicole Brown Simpson dined before death. Jacobson also has a business called Living Legends Ltd. that books personal appearances for former child stars.

“I’m delighted and proud and still have to pinch myself when I call these folks my friends — just like you I grew up watching them on television,” she said. “Sometimes I still get a little excited when Wally Cleaver calls me!”

The child actors come out of a special time in television history, one Jacobson said may never be repeated.

“There may be enough interest in some shows at least into the ’80s and perhaps the ’90s. But the reason these kids are so unique is because there were only three stations when they were on the air,’ she said. “And their shows were syndicated all over the world. The fan mail that my husband receives comes from the most faraway corners of the Earth where they tell us they grew up watching Lassie. At a time when the world was not so connected as it is now through social media, these kids were the connection for millions of people.

“When you say, ‘Timmy’s in the well,’ or ‘Danger Will Robinson’ or ‘Hello, Mr. Wilson’ millions of people know exactly what you’re talking about. That would be very difficult to replicate today.”

Especially since — spoiler alert — Timmy never actually fell in a well. But at least he’s got something cooking for dinner.