Unearthing and re-creating the "company food" of yesteryear! I'll cook it, my husband will eat it, and you'll rest easy in the knowledge that your next backyard party or church potluck will be a success!
Every few weeks, Facebook becomes re-enamored with some variation of "21 Most Disgusting Retro Recipes" and you Kitchenettes trip all over yourselves sending me the link. I'm grateful to be remembered, I really am; but to paraphrase the immortal words of Miss Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest, "I'm not mad at you, Helga, I'm mad at the dirt."
Buzzfeed has failed to perform due diligence in their besmirching of mid-century cookery - I've already made several of their "disgusting" recipes, and without exception they were - well, "not awful" might be the best that could be said about some of them, but others, like today's offering, are quite a sucess.
I'll grant you that it looks like something the dog disgorged, though.
"Glace Fish Mold" is almost always included in Buzzfeed's list, but invariably it's just the picture, with no recipe attached. I had a devil of a time tracking down how to make it, but finally found a recipe courtesy of our friends over at Brain Pickings:
You'll notice right away that my creation looks nothing at all like the picture above, even though I followed the recipe to the letter. My testers theorized that the dish in the photo might contain some tomato juice; I'm more inclined to blame bad lighting.
I'm sure you're all anxious to get to the video so you can watch Dr. Husband retch all over our newly-finished dining room, but I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed:
Our Rating: One Screaming Husband! (all
dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming
Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during
cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce
proceedings.)
I'm not going to beat around the bush, ladies - Dr. Husband and I have practically been working round the clock, and so this week's entry is a little weak on content. And effort, if we're being honest. In fact, calling it "this week's" entry is disingenuous as this dish was made and sat in the fridge for about eight days before we got around to tasting it. Not to worry, Jell-O is a superb preservative!
The other feature ingredient here is Veg-All, "serving up memories since 1926." Originally crafted to ease the burden of homemade pot pies and vegetable soups, Veg-All became a boon to mid-century housewives experimenting with all sorts of casseroles. From the Veg-All website:
While its nutritional benefits are legendary, Veg-All mixed vegetables
bring something just as important to the table
... convenience.
Each can of Veg-All has the perfect blend of carrots, potatoes,
green beans, corn and lima beans ... it’s the easy solution to
any
recipe dilemma. Just open and enjoy!
The recipe for "Pie-Plate Salad" was sent to me by a fan. Maybe, I can't quite remember. I may have seen it on Gilligan's Island, for all I know. At any rate, I'm even too lazy this week to type out the recipe, so here it is in it's original form:
Though simple, I was intrigued that there was no modification of the gelatin - normally savory dishes call for a dash of salt or vinegar, or both, to cut the sweetness. Not so here - it practically makes itself! Unfortunately, you then have to eat it....
Our Rating: Four Screaming Husbands! (all
dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming
Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during
cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce
proceedings.)
contributed by Mrs. Eric H. Spinney The Bluenose Cookbook: Famous Yarmouth Recipes
As careful readers will recall, Dr. Husband and I spent some time north of the border this summer, in Nova Scotia to be exact, exploring some little bits of Dr. Husband's foreign ancestry.
Traveling around the peninsula, one realizes that the hardy Nova Scotians will throw just about anything in a pot and eat it, an observation borne out by the types of recipes I've found in my souvenir cookbook, The Bluenose Cookbook: Famous Yarmouth Recipes, published by the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Yarmouth Y.M.C.A. Plenty of molded salads to be found here, as well as steamed vegetable puddings; fish balls, cakes, stews and chowders; extruded potato casseroles and enough fruit compotes that they could have published a book just of them.
I chose beets for today's dish because I had them on hand, and it's admittedly low risk since I've had good luck with beet/Jell-o combinations in the past. Plus, unlike the easy sell for Dr. Husband, today I'll be serving to company!
The recipe is simple as can be, but here's a friendly tip: Don't mix your ingredients in a glass bowl, precariously placed on the edge of a counter in your new kitchen that you're not used to yet. Or your first batch may end up looking something like this:
The second batch went a little more smoothly.
Beet Jello Salad - Mrs. Eric H. Spinney
1 can diced beets (15 oz.) 2 pkgs. lemon jello (3-oz. packages) 4 heaping tbsp. horseradish (that's a LOT of horseradish, friends. I used about half that.) 3 tbsp, vinegar 1 grated onion (medium)
Drain beets, add enough water to beet juice to make 3 cups. Boil this and add and dissolve jello powder. To this add remaining ingredients. Cut in squares, or use jelly molds.
Mrs. Spinney didn't instruct us to chill before cutting in squares, but I guess we're all on board with that, n'est ce pas (as they say in Canada)?
She also didn't mention the timing of adding your ingredients into the Jell-O...maybe because it's colder in Canada things set up more quickly, but I added everything all at once and found that the horseradish congregated at the bottom of the mold and the beets at the top. Nice layering effect, but if you want things more blended, let the Jell-O firm up a bit before adding things in.
Anyway, I know you're all only here for the cute video, so...
Our Rating: One Screaming Husband! (all
dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming
Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during
cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce
proceedings.)
Well, hello there Kitschenettes! Are you ready to get back to cooking seemingly-disgusting dishes to foist into your unsuspecting loved ones? I know I am!
You may or may not have known or cared, but Dr. Husband and I left the rented confines of the former Historic Test Kitchen this summer and set ourselves up in our very own little love nest. By "set ourselves up" I mean dumped all our stuff in the new place and then set off for ten days in Canada, to experience a little of Dr. Husband's ancestral background. (Lots of wacked-out recipe inspiration north of the border, including today's offering!) Then we spent the rest of the summer visiting sites of National importance, most of which I hope you've vicariously visited with us and told all your friends about. Then I took a new job which cuts my commute from six hours to one. So more time for cooking!
Now, then - gleaned in a Canadian swap shop was this little gem, Mettja C. Roate's 1968 New Hot Dog Cookbook:
As Ms. Roate proudly proclaims right there on the cover, "Kids love them - adults adore them - and they're so easy on the budget!" (disclaimer - one or more of those statements may not be true)
The book is helpfully divided into sections: Hors d'oeurves, Soups (!), Salads, Casseroles, etc. Honestly, I could probably blog for a year just with this book alone. Along with the recipes, we get informative insights like the following, "Seasoned ground meat held captive in a casing goes way back into ancient history", and, "The fellow who put the long bun around the wiener came from St. Louis."
The New Hot Dog Cookbook contains no less than FOUR distinct recipes for Hot Dog Loaf, and today we'll explore #3, for no particular reason other than I already had most of the ingredients on hand. Ready? Let's go!
10 hot dogs (I used all-beef) 1 cup canned tomatoes (I used fresh) 1 cup canned peas, drained 1 cup canned carrots, drained 1/2 cup chopped cashew nuts 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon Accent (I used garlic powder) 1/4 cup minced onion 1 cup soft, white enriched bread crumbs 1/2 cup half-and-half 3 eggs, beaten until lemon yellow 1 tablespoon melted butter
Chop the hot dogs until they are the consistency of coarse corn meal. Mix the chopped hot dogs, tomatoes, peas, carrots, cashews, salt, Accent, pepper, onions and bread crumbs thoroughly.
Mix the cream and beaten eggs together and add to the mixture. Stir in the melted butter. Mix thoroughly, and place in a lightly buttered loaf tin. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour or until the center is firm. Serve in 1-1/2 inch slices. Serves six generously.
I couldn't get six people willing to try it, but here's how it went with three:
Our Ratings: Two-and-a-half/Three Screaming Husbands! (all
dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming
Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during
cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce
proceedings.)
