the ultimate source for retro food recipes....

[mike_c]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888054883/002-8344437-8770420?v=glance&n=283155

Book Description
Banana meatloaf, tuna Jell-O salad, and Spam smoothies—borderline tummy-turners to downright doubtful, RETRO FOOD FIASCOS is a showcase of culinary curiosities from some of America’s favorite magazines, cookbooks, and food companies. In the name of nutrition and creative cooking, the marketing and recipe writers of the 1950s cooked up some very suspicious combinations. Innovations in food processing and new products tempted everyone to play with their food—from the amateur cook to the professional chef. And the results? We’ll let you be the judge. The pages are filled with actual recipes and images of some of the most daring dishes to ever leave the kitchen. So get out your Jell-O mold, canned meat, and best casserole dish—it’s time to get funky and answer the question "What were they thinking?"

From the Publisher
* Recipes include Fiesta Peach-Spam Loaf, Hot Turkey Surprise, Tomato Soup Cake, and Lime and Cottage Cheese Loaf. With 125 photos and illustrations of wacky and wonderful foods.

on edit-- the Crown Roast of Frankfurters is from this collection of recipes.

[babylonsister]

1. ARGH!

Spam smoothies?:wow: :thumbsdown: :puke:

[The empressof all]

2. I have made tomato soup cake

It's not bad. It's similar to spice cake because the recipe calls for cinnamon and nutmeg. I also put lots of raisins in it.

I haven't made it in years.

[Warpy]

3. I've long been grateful my mother hated to cook

because she didn't own a Jello mold, ring pan, or even ramekin dishes. I escaped most of the 50s food fads with my taste buds relatively uncorroded. I mostly grew up on peanut butter sandwiches and Campbell's chicken noodle soup, with oven fried chicken and mashed potatoes the typical Sunday dinner.

Oh, she had her moments, and the mere mention of some of her more notoriously bad efforts (mac & cheese, any sort of chop) would get my dad to say, "Hey! Let's go out to dinner!"

We ate out a LOT.

I can't imagine what a perverted idea of food I might have had she felt compelled to produce a hot dog crown roast. That's just plain WRONG.

[babylonsister]

4. Coming from a family of 5 kids, I'll bet my

mom wished she had that recipe. Well, she did, but the presentation was a bit more mundane. :)

[mike_c]

5. yeah, my mom was a pretty reluctant cook, too....

Although our family history includes a June Cleaverish photo from the local newspaper illustrating an article about my mother's recipe for some sort of green jello molded something or other-- I kid you not, all us crew-cut kids clustered around mom and the gently quivering platter of grarnished jello and stuff. In the newspaper. Mom I'm sorry-- I think she might occasionally read DU-- but that just isn't food.

In general, she was a "convenience cook," thoroughly sold on all those "modern foods." If it came in a can or frozen in an aluminum foil tray, I grew up on it. Maybe that's why I was so amazed by good food when I discovered how to cook.

[spindrifter]

11. Well, my mom was another notoriously

bad cook. She could never roast a chicken till it was done. Needless to say, we all had quite a few bouts of "stomach flu." She also had some really bad ideas about what ought to go on the menu: liver, Brussels sprouts, stuff like that that a kid just can't be asked to eat. If a kid volunteers to try that stuff--well, go for it.
We did not eat out a lot--except at my grandfather's restaurant, where I stuck to hamburgers, because he also had some weird stuff on the menu.
One time my dad revealed to me that he didn't like jello. I suspect he knew about the horses hooves it is made of, but didn't pass that gem along. That was like permission to avoid the jiggly stuff.
The '50's or '60's stuff my mom glombed onto was frozen foods. If I had a nickle for every meal containing frozen this or that, I'd be a lot farther along the road to wealth or maybe retirement. Moving away to go to school was a real revelation--there was a world of fresh, liver-free life out there!

[wildeyed]

14. I love liver, brussels sprouts AND jello!

Thing about liver and Brussels sprouts, needs to be prepared properly, otherwise it is completely vile. My Mother never made that stuff, so I learned to cook it as an adult. After my first baby, I was craving liver and onions so badly I was nearly crying. I had to beg my mother to make it, but once she did, she agreed that my recipe was really good.

I grew up during the 70s. My Mother was not a great or enthusiastic cook, but she did a good workman-like job. We never had convenience food, probably from lack of money more than anything. Also, my mom spent part of her childhood in France, so I guess she knew better, too.

[Warpy]

17. Brussels sprouts story

This is my dad's favorite war story. In the UK during WWII, they had been slow to come out of the depression and what little food there was, was rationed very strictly. Little was coming in, so they were pretty much stuck with what they could grow.

One night, a German pilot missed his target, a small town near London, and heavily bombed a field of Brussels sprouts.

The locals started a drive to find out the name of the pilot. They wanted to push to get him awarded the Victoria Cross!

My dad said they'd gotten Brussels sprouts three times a day during the worst part of the war. If my mother had ever tried to serve them, she'd have been served with divorce papers.

I never confronted them until I was grown and gone. Alas, they were typically prepared, mush on the outside and nearly raw on the inside. It's an acquired taste I've never acquired.

[spindrifter]

19. Maybe the pilot can get a posthumous

Victoria Cross!

[noamnety]

6. banana thing

There was one thing my mom made only on Christmas mornings which, now that I think about it, was just so weird and wrong.

We all gathered around the tree, and she brought each of us a plate that had one canned pineapple ring, with a half banana stuck upright into the center of the ring, and a maraschino cherry stuck on the end of the half banana with a toothpick.

Looking back, I can't think of what the symbolism of that banana erection could have been - why she'd serve it to her kids, and why on Christmas, of all days.

[babylonsister]

7. OMG-

:rofl: :spray:

I'm....speechless!:wow:

[The empressof all]

8. That was a Banana Candle

Lighting your way through the Christmas Season.

[noamnety]

9. are you sure?

cause it definitely looked like a banana something else.

But my folks do have a photo of my sister as a toddler trying to smoke a banana. So maybe that was some kind of theme running through their lives.

[spindrifter]

12. Yeah--if it

was something else, they would have put the banana between a couple of pear halves.

[mike_c]

10. here you go....

http://www.christmastreesny.org/kidzone/recipes.asp

Christmas Candle

1 pineapple slice
1/2 banana
2 maraschino cherries
1 candy mint leaf
1 leaf of lettuce

1. Place lettuce on plate
2. Put pineapple slice on lettuce
3. Put the cut end of the banana in hole of pineapple
4. Top with cherry
5. Place mint leaf on side with another cherry

on edit: :rofl:

[noamnety]

13. oh no, look at this version

CHANUKAH CANDLE SALAD

2 Bananas
4 Slices canned pineapple
4 Orange gumdrops
4 Strips green pepper
Lettuce
Mayonnaise

Cut bananas in half and remove tips. Stand upright in pineapple centers.

Top with gumdrop to represent flame. Pour a little mayo. from tip of each candle to represent melted wax. Arrange strip of pepper for handle, making a loop fastened into pineapple at base of candle.

http://www.jewish-food.org/recipes/chansala.htm

I guess I should be grateful my mom didn't get the urge to drizzle mayo down the length of the banana.

[wildeyed]

15. A little drop of mayo on the tip??????

:rofl:

Melted wax, riiiiight......

[Tab]

16. A lot of this

was from a period when everyone was discovering "presentation"...

It might be the same boring food, but now you could present it in a creative, "festive" way, making you the best hostess...

[wildeyed]

18. But aren't we always doing this?

Putting a new twist on something old? I got an ice cream maker about six months ago. I have been turning out all kinds of crazy dishes since then. This summer,when the tomatoes come in, I am planning to make avocado ice cream to scoop into gazpacho. You made mango/wasabi hummus. I think people will be laughing their asses off at us in about 50 years! ;)