Strawberry Glace Pie

Mmmmmm, pie! Strawberry season is upon us, friends, and really and truly, pies must be made. There is just no getting around this.

I recently picked up this adorable little Nitty Gritty Productions book called “Cakes & Pies”, the flip-side of which (when you turn it over and upside down) is called “Pies & Cakes” (c. 1978) I love it for several reasons: a) Groovy Mod Cover, b) Nitty Gritty Productions,( hello! I have 4 or 5 of their titles), c) the recipes are simple and easy to follow, after a useful intro “how-to” on the genre in general, and d) these are actually recipes you’d want to make! Normal, modern ingredients! Fresh fruits! Things you can still find at today’s grocery store!

So on a Saturday morning, I decided that my daughter and I would make pie. (I know for some parents, the answer to the question: Mom, what are we doing today? Is “going to the park” or something similarly expected, but I have to admit, I hate the park. So my answer usually has to do with cooking, such as: “we’re going to the Farmer’s Market!” or, as in this case, “We’re making pie!”) I actually offered her the choice between Cake and Pie (after all, they are both covered in this cute little book) and she chose pie. She chose wisely!

And here is the reason I am all too glad to make pie: I CHEAT! I have a recipe for crust, made from scratch, that requires NO 2-knives, no ice water, no “shortening” (bleeeeech.) and does NOT even have to be rolled out! Thanks again to Mom, who, in the 70s, sold gourmet cookware in a pioneering shop in Berkeley, where she frequently demonstrated the new miracle kitchen appliance, the Cuisinart. Oui, from France. (Ooh La La!) So while my adorable cook-book offers a probably wonderful recipe for a basic crust, I vetoed it in favor of what I call “Mom’s” pie crust, but which I know to actually have originated from the guide book for her Cuisinart. Just flour, butter, a pinch of salt and a blob of sour cream, and in no time, you have a fabulous and perfect crust! (In fact, this book mentions the technique of making crust in a food processor, but not with the sour cream, which eliminates the need for cold liquid and other elaborate steps.) Of course, if you don’t have a food processor, I guess you are stuck with the knives. And I’m sorry. Still, this is PIE we’re talking about, so I have no doubt it will be worth it.


Strawberry Glace Pie

• 1 pie crust (see below)
• 6 cups (about 1 ½ quarts) strawberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• ½ cup water
• 1 pkg (3 oz) cream cheese, optional
• 1 to 2 Tbsp milk

Line 9-inch pie plate with crust. Finish edges as desired. Prick with fork and chill if time allows. Bake as directed. Cool on wire rack until needed. Wash and hull strawberries. Mash enough berries to measure 1 cup. Blend sugar and cornstarch together in saucepan. Stir in water and crushed berries. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil, stirring, 1 minute. Cool. Beat cream cheese with milk. Spread on bottom of baked pie shell. Fill shell with whole berries. Pour cooked mixture over top. Refrigerate several hours. Garnish with whipped cream.



Mom’s Pie Crust:

In Cuisinart:
• 1 cup flour
• 1 stick butter, in 4 pieces
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 Tbsp sour cream (add this last)

Process till it forms a ball (under a minute!), press into pie dish and flute edges. Prick bottom with fork; bake at 375 for 20 min. Cool.

Avocado and Cheese Sandwich for Mom

In honor of Mother’s Day, I decided to re-create one of my mom’s favorite all-time dishes, the avocado-and-cheese sandwich. Morning, noon and night she has made these, and I must admit to preferring them to her other favorite, the (dreaded) peanut-butter-and-mayonnaise sandwich. Both contain mayonnaise, something I detested till fairly recently - perhaps as a result of my mom’s 70s experiments with making her own. Yellow and runny, it was never a favorite of mine, and I was all too happy to comply with eating store-bought mayo when she gave up the home-made version. (I seem to recall a similar episode with the Yogurt Maker, though that was even shorter-lived, perhaps because I used the cups for some art project or other after finding them in the basement…)

So, the avocado and cheese. Made with whole wheat bread (I tried it with my personal favorite, sour dough, but it just didn’t taste right) and only the sharpest of cheddar cheese, it is a perfect vegetarian lunch - or dinner, if paired with a salad a glass of wine. As a life-long vegetarian, my mom must have slapped together and eaten something like 60,000 of these!

The secret ingredient for her, until the formulation was changed in the late 90s, was Vege Sal, the age-old celery salt/spice mix that I am told does not contain salt, and is supposed to have been around since the 20s. I tried, OK I really tried, to like it, and to use it in my cooking, but, sorry, I just can’t. So when I saw that my mom no longer used it (because she swears it tastes different, and she would know, having consumed it on nearly all her food all her life!), I secretly rejoiced. Now, her recipe calls for fancy, large-crystal sea salt, usually whatever variety someone has given her as a gift. She has even been known to shake on a pinch of Herbes de Provence, for that singular 90s touch. But because I am a retro-purist, I stuck as close as I could to the original, and toasted to her, for Mother’s Day. Cheers, mom!



Avocado and Cheese Sandwich

Lightly toast 2 slices of whole wheat bread
Spread mayonnaise in a thin layer on both
Slice an avocado and lay the slices on both slices of bread
Salt and pepper the avocadoes (* can use Vege Sal if desired)
Cover all with sliced or grated cheddar cheese
Broil or toast in toaster oven for 5 minutes, till cheese melts

Choy Sum

Normally, I like to follow recipes, but every now-and-then, it makes sense to know how to cook things without one, and here is a method you can use for many things, from greens to Brussels sprouts. This method comes from Paul Mayer’s 1975 “Vegetable Cookbook” (published by Concord, California’s own Nitty Gritty Productions – YEAH!) and is quite easy and tasty. And so I turned to this when I got some strange greens at the farmer’s market and was not sure what to do with them.

My daughter and I have a game we play at the farmer’s market, where we have to buy something we have not tried before and cook it up. This is always enjoyable, but sometimes not exactly delicious. This time, however, it was a rousing success. Thank you, O vegetarians of the 70s! (Yep, that means you, Mom.)

Choy Sum, aka Canton Bok Choi. I had certainly never bought this before, at least not in this flowered state: a bundle of leaves and many, many bright, mustard-yellow flowers that were said to be edible. On this day at the market, everyone seemed to have piles of the stuff, as is the case with the smaller local markets where you really get JUST what is in season locally, even if it means all anyone has that day is carrots and onions. So my daughter and I made a deal – we would get some, and just try it, knowing that it might taste awful, but would at least be amusing! When we got home, I looked it up in my Produce Guide, which said when there were lots of flowers, it might be bitter. Yikes! So I first blanched it all for 1 minute before cooking it a la Vegetable Cookbook. I made a couple of modifications too – using chicken stock in place of water, and cooking it a few minutes longer than 7, more like 10. I was liberal with the butter, and the leaves tasted like bok choy (so far, so good, we both like that) and Lo and Behold, the flowers tasted FABULOUS! My daughter actually fought me for them, eating pounds of the stuff! She ate them before her chicken – success!


The Paul Mayer Method for Cooking Green Vegetables

1. Bring a teakettle full of water to a full boil.
2. Into another pot with a lid, scatter a handful of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Place over high heat until sugar begins to caramelize.
3. Quickly add prepared vegetables. Without reducing heat, pour in the boiling water. The water never ceases boiling and the vegetables start cooking immediately. Cover the pot and boil rapidly for exactly 7 minutes.
4. Quickly drain vegetables into a colander and rinse briefly with cool tap water to stop the cooking action. The vegetables will remain hot!
5. Drain well and season with melted butter, or serve with sauce or seasoned butter, or topped with almonds. (This method is not used for root vegetables, eggplant, artichokes or spinach.)

Classic Beef Stroganoff

I love this Betty Crocker cookbook, above all for the photographs of many glorious Dansk baking dishes, including the lovely yellow one on the cover (that contains some bizarre sausage concoction.) Originally from 1965, this edition is from 1974, but I believe many of the images are the same ones from the original printing, and certainly most of the recipes seem to be as well.

Hailing from a time when casseroles were made from endless combinations of pantry staples, combined with a meat and a frozen vegetable, this book features one of THE most classic dishes, called “Classic Beef Stroganoff”. But as with so many older recipes, this one called for ingredients I either don’t approve of, or could not find, such as a can of bouillon. So I used tiny little scoops of “Better than Bouillon” which I think is super yummy WITHOUT the msg! Yes, I did go ahead with the catsup, especially since I was making this for my 5 year old, who adores the stuff. Sadly, the end result was that she refused to eat the sauce and I had to rinse the meat off and serve it to her NEXT to plain noodles!

At any rate, this is quick and easy, though I think that modern diners are so used to really fresh, made-from-scratch foods that the sauce just ended up tasting a bit “canned”. Some of the more bizarre concoctions in the book might not be super tasty either, but the photographs are so BRIGHT and GLORIOUS that I am sure I will be trying many more. Just for the love of it!



Classic Beef Stroganoff

1 lb beef tenderloin or boneless sirloin steak
½ lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
½ cup minced onion
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 can (10 ½ oz) beef bouillon
2 Tbsp catsup
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup dairy sour cream
3 to 4 cups hot cooked noodles or rice

Cut meat diagonally into very thin slices. Cook and stir mushrooms and onion in butter until onion is tender; remove from skillet. In same skillet, brown meat lightly on both sides. Set aside 1/3 cup bouillon; stir remaining bouillon, the catsup, garlic, and salt into skillet. Cover and simmer 15 min. Blend reserved 1/3 cup bouillon and flour; stir into skillet. Add mushrooms and onion. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil 1 min. Stir in sour cream; heat through. Serve over hot noodles or rice. 4 servings.

Tea Dainties, aka Tea Don'ts

Baking. I love to do it, but WOW things do not always turn out! Especially with old recipes, because anything called for that is packaged might be quite different in formulation or quantity now. Also, things can just be off, as in humidity, oven temp, relative size of eggs… I can think of plenty of excuses why cookies burn, cakes fall, or custard doesn’t set up properly. And sometimes, simply not paying attention is the culprit, as in loosing count of cups of flour, or half-teaspoons-full of salt! In the case of these tea cookies, I’m not quite sure what wasn’t right. Each batch did get better, though none was perfect. I am tempted to re-name them Tea Don’ts!

For this recipe, I took the Way, Way Back Machine to WELL beyond my normal 60s and 70s comfort zone, to a cookbook from 1939 (albeit the 1947 printing!) with the delightful title of “The Prudence Penny Regional Cookbook”, published by The San Francisco Examiner. (Note: I am still on my local kick.) This cook book is fascinating because it is divided into regions of the US (New England, Southern, Pennsylvania Dutch, Creole, Mississippi Valley, Minnesota Scandinavian, Western, Cosmopolitain, and so on) and so it is actually a great resource for virtually any type of traditional recipe. Also, it features color photos of many elaborate, and now gross-seeming things like gelatin-and-meat-salad-creations, or vegetables carved into shapes of animals but NOT meant to be served to children. Delights like this, that nobody has time, nor inclination for these days, are what got me into this whole vintage cookery thing in the first place. And look at the photo of all the pretty cookies! Note: these are CLEARLY not in the photo!

About the cookies: I thought, from the name and ingredients, that these would be something on the order of lace cookies, but they were not nearly as crispy. Also, good heavens, when they said “greased cookie sheet”, I don’t think they meant a light spray of Pam – I think they mean, SMEAR THAT SUCKER with Crisco! Because Lordy, these cookies STUCK something fierce. That said, and after burning the first batch, they did get better and better as I made them smaller and baked them for only 10 minutes rather than 12. Still, they were not sweet enough and the texture was weird, so for my next batch of cookies, I’m moving on. To you out there I say: Do NOT try this at home!

Tea Dainties

2 eggs
1 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup sifted flour
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cup chopped walnuts

Beat eggs and brown sugar. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together, and add to egg mixture. Blend thoroughly. Add walnuts. Drop from teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet, ½ inch apart, and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F) for 12 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Green Beans Paprika

From Joe Carcione “The Greengrocer Cookbook” 1975

I love this book, and of course I remember the TV spots on our local KRON TV, (where today, 30 years later, one of my girlfriends does the Real Estate spots!) featuring Joe “Cart-a-Groceries”. This well-loved, dripped-on and stained (I am always thrilled to find cook-books in this condition, as it shows they were actually worthy of cooking from) is stamped inside: Compliments of Bay View Federal Savings. Brings to mind an Entirely Different World, where you used to get gifts from the bank when you opened an account! Imagine that! Now, we just get fines.

Anyhow, one of the great things about this book is the introduction, written by Joe’s dad, who lived in San Francisco during The Earthquake, and got into the produce business in 1920. His account of the local produce scene is worth reading in itself if you care for local history, which I am a nut for. I am always fascinated to learn that things we think are new ideas are actually nothing new at all. The modern “locavore” movement, where folks consume only foods originating from within a 100 mile radius, certainly has roots in the regular produce trade, as Peter Carcione records: “Fruits and vegetables were difficult to keep fresh without the modern transportation and refrigeration facilities in use today. But even without modern facilities, at least in the Bay Area, fruits and vegetables arrived at the market within twenty-four hours of the time they were harvested. The farmers and growers in the areas north and south of San Francisco would harvest their crops and bring them by horse and wagon, driving late at night.”

Joe’s book is really lovely in how it is laid out – by season. So if you shop at the Farmer’s Market, for example, he outlines what will be in season, and how to judge if it is fresh. He throws in great anecdotes about selling the various items in his long career at the Produce Market, and the various buyers. The whole thing makes shopping at Safeway, where you can get almost anything, anytime of year, but it will be strange and tasteless, seem, well, flavorless. From the more-expensive-yet-local market, I got some green beans, and I knew I’d find a simple recipe in this cook book. The funny thing about this one is, there is actually NO paprika called for! These were quickly cooked up to accompany pork chops my daughter and I had for dinner, and she liked them because of the sugar. I squeezed more lemon onto mine, and we were both happy.


Green Beans Paprika

1 lb green beans
2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
Brown sugar to taste
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf
Dash of allspice

Cut beans diagonally or lengthwise. Cook in very little water 5 minutes, in a covered saucepan. Add the other ingredients, cook 3 minutes longer. Remove garlic and bay leaf. Serve hot or cold. Serves 6 to 8.

Spicy Peanut Snack Mix

I am So Excited: I am going to my FIRST TUPPERWARE PARTY! And so I felt compelled to bring a snack from my 1981 Tupperware book, “Homemade is Better from Tupperware Home Parties”. I need something that will travel well, something that doesn’t have to be heated up or assembled prior to serving, yet something slightly sweet / slightly savory – perfect for a mid-afternoon snack. A-Hah, Spicy Peanut Snack Mix! And what better way to show off my vintage Tupperware, too, than by packing said snack into one of my canisters!

I love vintage Tupperware. I have many of the 70s canisters, even in the unusual-except-for-in-California Tortilla Saver. It is into that, in fact, that I will pack the snack, since I have two of those (neither of which is actually in service storing tortillas.) And if there is any left over…

Wait, who am I kidding? There won’t be any left over. I had to sample a bite, which turned into several, and this is YUMMY! I was a bit heavy-handed with the spices: I forgot that the organic cinnamon I got is POTENT and you only need to use half of what is called for - but then, I love cinnamon, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Also I grated fresh nutmeg, and again, that seems pretty strong as well! I think it might taste good with paprika or red pepper flakes, so I will have to try it that way next time. Mmmm, snacks and champagne and shopping…


Spicy Peanut Snack Mix

1 egg white
2 tsp water
3 Tbsp sugar
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
5 cups bite-size shredded corn, wheat or rice squares
1 8oz jar of dry roasted peanuts

In Small Mix-N-Stor pitcher, blend egg-white and water; stir in sugar and spices. Beat till frothy.

In 13x9x2-inch baking pan, mix cereal and nuts. Add egg white mixture; toss to coat. Bake in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan; cool thoroughly.

Store in canister. Makes 7 cups.

Spinach-Meatball Toss

From the Tupperware book, “Homemade is Better” (Special 30th Anniversary Edition, 1981) which I love to display next to my vintage Tupperware canisters, as depicted on the book’s cover, this recipe is made with a “base” (in this case, meatballs) that they recommend you make mass quantities of and store for use in the varied recipes, at later times. In my case, however, I happened to have a bag of meatballs from IKEA, and used those! I made the combined salad for myself, but for my daughter and her friend (5 and 4 years old, respectively), I served plain meatballs, next to a mini-version of the salad. (They are willing to try my creations, but sometimes prefer a de-constructed version.) Little do they know, they are foodies-in-training, just as I was when, as a little girl, I would moan to my mother: “Oh NO, you’re NOT making chutney AGAIN!” Complain complain complain. Fortunately, that is not what happened when I served this dinner. We all liked it enough to make it again, despite my initial assessment of most of the recipes contained herein as “weird”. OK, meatballs in salad I still think is a little weird, but I love spinach and egg, so somehow it worked. Also I love that in the recipe, you are directed not just in the cooking, but also as to WHICH of your various Tupperware items to use in each step. Brilliant.

I adapted things slightly, leaving out the water chestnuts and sprouts, and adding in chopped scallions, and also I used only the yolks of the eggs since, disappointingly, didn’t hard-boil fully – but it came together palatably. (That is the difference between throwing together a salad and, say, baking – substitutions are just fine in salad, but you must adhere to the chemistry with baking, or risk disaster.) The girls focused mostly on the meatballs, complete with 3 dipping sauces: the super-tangy BBQ style sauce from the recipe, lingonberry sauce (Swedish), and of course, catsup. Revoltingly, but not surprisingly, catsup was the winner with the kids. But they did also eat the spinach, so it was an overall Win-Win situation!


Spinach-Meatball Toss

1 24-meatball container FREEZER MEATBALLS **
½ cup water
10 oz fresh spinach (7 cups)
3 hard-cooked eggs
1 8oz can water chestnuts, drained
2 cups fresh bean sprouts
¼ cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/3 cup catsup
¼ cup vinegar
2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

• In large saucepan, place Freezer Meatballs (**) in a single layer. Add water and cover. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes or till meatballs are heated through.
• Meanwhile, tear spinach into bite-size pieces in the large Decorator Salad Bowl.
• Quarter eggs and slice water chestnuts; add to spinach with bean sprouts.
• In Small Mix-N-Stor pitcher, stir together sugar and cornstarch.
• Blend in catsup, vinegar, onion and Worcestershire sauce.
• Add catsup mixture to saucepan; cook and stir over medium heat till thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes more. Pour over vegetables in Salad Bowl. Toss
• Serve in individual Decorator Salad Bowls.
• Makes 6 servings.

** A basic recipe for meatballs that you have previously made and frozen carefully in your Tupperware meatball container!

Spinach Balls

This recipe comes from my aunt’s best friend, Claire-Louise, who used to make these absolutely Every Time she came over to our house. I got so used to them that I had to ask her for the recipe simply because I started to miss them at dinner parties when I moved out on my own! Claire tells me she has been making them since she and my aunt were wild college girls in the 60s, which always makes me think of one of my favorite cook-books of all time, Saucepans and The Single Girl by Jinx Kragen and Judy Perry, from 1965.

I have cooked plenty of things from Saucepans, all fine and dandy, but I actually find it to be an even more valuable guide to life. Who else told young girls to use an ironing board as a dining table if they had none? Who else describes each recipe not by its taste but by its usefulness? Who else pronounced a salad a “terror to prepare”? Amusing and delightful, as is the effect of popping one of Claire-Louise’s spinach balls, warm, into your mouth.


Claire-Louise’s Spinach Balls:

2 pkg chopped spinach, drained (about 1 lb or 16 oz, do not cook)
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
¾ cup butter, melted
¾ cups Parmesan cheese
2 cups Italian breadcrumbs
1 onion, chopped
Salt and Pepper, to taste


• Mix all ingredients together, then form into small balls.
• Freeze for 10 min or so to hold shape. (NOT overnight, they will freeze solid! Can refrigerate over night.)
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15 – 20 min
• Serve warm

Tiffany's Table Manners for Teenagers

Today, we travel back Even Further in time, to the magical year of 1961 - the year my current apartment was built, exactly 10 years before I was born. And as a further departure, there is no actual recipe for today. We are still dealing with food here, though, which we can learn to enjoy as ladies and gentlemen, by consulting this adorable guide.

This book was given to me by my aunt when I turned 13, and I remember loving it, and trying to remember all the details about the fish fork and meat knife – not entirely relevant, since my mom and I were vegetarians! But I knew that This Glorious Little Book would somehow, if I learned the rules, transform me into the fabulous teenager I longed to be. Little did I know that by the time I became a teenager, in the 80s, very few of the rules set forth by Walter Hoving, and delightfully illustrated by Joe Eula, were even still in use. I like to think that I was “retro” before there was such a thing. Before my time, you were either called “born-too-late” or a History Buff. Or just plain “weird” – I got that a lot.

So it is with glee that I am turning a new generation on to the delights of proper table etiquette – I have been reading this to my 5-year-old daughter as bedtime reading, and she LOVES it! Mostly she giggles at the “don’ts”, but perhaps some of the “dos” will sink in as well. At the very least, she will know not to “leap at her food like an Irish wolfhound.”

Steamed Artichokes

Steamed artichokes are one of my favorite foods, and I am proud to say that my daughter loves them too. It always cracks me up when other kids come over for dinner, if we are having them, and have never seen them before and don’t know what to do with them. OK, is this weird? I love them so much, I even taught my dachshund to eat them! And I kid you not, he would carefully close his mouth around the leaf and bite down, as gentle as you please, while I pulled the leaf out – and he actually got the meat each time! Nobody believes me, but really, I did!

Now my 5-year old loves them as much as I do (I think), only she refuses to have mayonnaise or melted butter to dip them into - she likes them Absolutely Plain…Which brings me to a related topic, something I am NOT actually serving in my home, but something that WAS served to my mother and her sister, growing up in California with parents who were Light Years ahead of their time, at least in terms of Health Trends: the Mono Meal.

Most people have never heard of the Mono Meal, in fact there is not even a listing in Wikipedia for it, though you can search related topics such as frutarianism and raw foodism. But even when I was little, a trip to my grandparents’ frequently consisted of at least one Mono Meal. Very simply, it means that for each meal, you consume only ONE food, always a fruit or vegetable. For example, for lunch we are having oranges! As many as you can eat, but ONLY ORANGES. And for dinner, for example, we might be having artichokes – what, hungry, you say? Great, you can have AS MANY AS YOU LIKE. 3? 6? Even 10! BUT NOTHING ELSE.

In my grandmother’s honor, I even use her steamer to cook my artichokes. I recently got a cool little insert for steaming them, but it only does one at a time, and I am so used to cramming up to 3 in the little fold-out/expanding-petal steamer inside the tall pot I have been using for years, that I just kept the new one in the box. (And when I say “new” of course I mean from Thrift Town for 1.99, originally from 1980 - which is Really Pushing the vintage envelope for me!)

Steamed Artichokes

• wash artichokes
• trim pointy tips of leaves with scissors
• slice off entire top about ¼ inch from top
• set in steaming basket over 1 cup or so of water
• steam on high for 30 min, then check every 5 min
• done when leaves pull off easily but do not fall off (total between 30 – 60 min)
• carefully bite off just the meat at the wide end of each leaf – after dipping in melted butter, mayonnaise or sauce of your choice
• to eat the heart, remove all pointy bits (the choke) with knife or spoon, then cut up and dip into mayonnaise or melted butter. DIVINE!

Tequila Salad (?!?)

Sometimes the strangest things turn out to be real winners.

I recently acquired a complete set of 1975 Betty Crocker recipe cards, in a lovely avocado-green plastic box (the whole of which weighs a ton, and I should know because I have already dropped it on my toe!), and was looking for something actually edible, yet distinctly 70s, to bring to a pot luck last summer. Lo and Behold, in the “Flavors of the World” section, there was the comedic-sounding Tequila Salad.

Well, I thought to myself, this sounds so weird I just HAVE to make it! And, it turns out, it is nothing more than various citrus, avocado and canned pineapple cut up into a salad, and dressed with a margarita, to which salad oil has been added. Strange? Yes, but, surprisingly, WONDERFUL! And to my great amusement, before I revealed the Secret Ingredient, people kept saying: “Wow this tastes great, what is in this dressing? I don’t normally even LIKE salad…”

“Hah!” I said, “TEQUILA!” No WONDER you’re all so cheerful. Works every time!

This past weekend I made this dish for a friend’s birthday, and the salad was eaten up faster than the scrumptious Red Velvet cupcakes that another friend brought. Which reminds me, Red Velvet cupcakes are the ONLY variety of cupcake worth eating, and when made by this particular Southern Gentleman (who is an amazing baker), I declare they are worth more than gold! He and I had fun giggling over the fact that there was booze in the salad dressing, and over our shared love of the Great Ms. Paula Deen - not only her cooking (Butter! Bacon!) but also of her style (false eyelashes! Big Hair!).

The card reads: “a salad created from the flavors of the popular Mexican drink, the Margarita” copyright 1975 General Mills – Betty Crocker’s Step-by-Step recipes


Tequila Salad:

1 can (15 ¼ oz) slice pineapple, drained (reserve ¼ cup syrup)
¼ cup lime juice
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
2 Tbsp tequila
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
¼ tsp salt
3 medium avocados
Lime juice
2 large grapefruit
2 large oranges
Salad greens
Chopped walnuts
Salt

• Shake reserved pineapple syrup, ¼ cup lime juice, the sugar, tequila, oil and ¼ tsp salt in tightly covered container. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
• Cut avocados lengthwise in half; remove pits. Peel avocados; cut into ½-inch lieces. Sprinkle pieces with lime juice.
• Cut pineapple slices in half.
• Pare and section grapefruit and oranges; cut sections in half if desired.
• Just before serving, toss avocado pieces with pineapple and grapefruit and orange sections; place on salad greens.
• Sprinkle walnuts and salt over salad. Serve with dressing. (8 servings)

Ginger Spice Buttons

Oh my goodness, I love cookies. DO I LOVE COOKIES! In fact, just the other day I (ahem) over did it on Thin Mints, courtesy of some charming 8 year-old Girl Scouts. Well OK it wasn’t THEIR fault I ate very nearly the entire box the same day they were delivered to me at work... and they were good, too, they are good every year. But I have to admit, home-made cookies are still better, and I make and consume them as often as possible. In fact I have so many “favorite” cookie recipes that I was hesitant to try this one, thinking of all the similar cookies I already make. However, trusting in Food and Wine magazine, (or perhaps it was one of the last issues of [sniff] Gourmet Magazine), I found a new love! So I am now forced to admit that, though I am a sucker for vintage, I do in fact read the new food publications, and – I EVEN COOK THEIR RECIPES. OK there, I said it, it’s out in the open and we can now move on.

Ginger Spice Buttons. I almost passed this one up. YEP, folks, I ALMOST PASSED THIS ONE UP! I’ll never know what it was that made me rip this page out that fateful day, but I am glad I did. Even though the toasting of the almonds and subsequent pulverization via food processor looked a tad over-zealous, somehow I decided the old Cuisinart needed some attention – or it could be that it was almost Valentines Day and I wanted to express my undying love with sugar. And although the butter had to be softened (not melted = quicker) and the dough would have to chill for one hour (all this means quite some time from start to finish), my love for spice *anything* made me slap that apron on and try them and WOW, I suggest you do the same!


GINGER SPICE BUTTONS:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups lightly toasted blanched almonds, finely ground
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp allspice
Large crystal sugar

1. in a bowl, beat together butter and sugar until smooth, scraping inside of bowl. Beat in molasses, vanilla and salt, then stir in flour, almonds, cornstarch, cinnamon, ginger and allspice. Wrap and chill dough for 1 hour.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, roll in crystal sugar and place on baking sheets. Bake until bottoms are lightly browned, about 8 min. Cool on pans 3 min. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely. Store airtight up to 5 days. Makes 5 dozen.

Crock Pot Refried Bean Dip

Yes, I love my crock pot! And so I was delighted to find this 1975 Best-seller: Crockery Cookery by Mable Hoffman. See her pictured above with two of her (one can only assume) MANY crock pots! I hope that someday I can be as cool as Mable. And I might be, because later that VERY DAY, I received in the mail a valentines gift from a dear pal: a new, yet similar, cookbook, entitled “Not your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook”. (I gather the more PC term is Slow Cooker – wouldn’t want to offend anyone – or any electrical appliances - now would I?)

I will certainly be trying many of the recipes in the new book – they call for Fresh Produce and Cuts of Meat I have Actually Heard of! Still, I have The Weakness for the Vintage, so I began with a simple recipe from Mabel.

Having missed out on a Superbowl party this year because of travel, I was still craving dip, and was reminded of the time when a friend from the UK asked me what Americans do at Superbowl patries and I gleefully explained to her that, why, we eat DIP! Then I had to tell her what that is. Ah, the English – I love that we are mutually foreign. Anyhow, the bean dip was great with restaurant-style tortilla chips, but would have been tasty with Fritos as well, I think. It tasted remarkably familiar to some of us, and we later identified the mysterious flavor: Taco Bell Bean Burrito!

The thing with the crock pot is that, despite Mable and others assuring us that nearly ANYTHING can be made in them, I have found that some things work better than others. Luckily, refried bean dip is one that works quite well! And again, is sooooo easy to make that you feel like you aren’t ACTUALLY cooking. Because, haha, you’re not! You’re just tossing a few things into a glorified bucket and walking away for several hours.

REFRIED BEAN DIP

1 (20 oz) can refried beans
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
½ cup chopped green onions
¼ tsp. salt
2 tsp. bottled taco sauce (I used hot sauce)
Tortilla chips

In slow-cooking pot, combine beans with cheese, onions, salt, and taco sauce. Cover and cook on low for 2 to 2 ½ hours. Serve hot from the pot. Dip tortilla chips into mixture.

* OK I didn’t serve it from the pot because my crock pot is the HUGE one, and this was a LITTLE amount of dip and it would have looked SILLY! Also I did add a cilantro garnish. I mean, I was taking this to a party, after all!

Oatmeal Muffins

The recipe comes from the cookbook that we worked with in my first cooking class, in 1979: “Recipes for Young Cooks” by Carole Fitzgerald. Honestly, I have made this recipe so many times since then that I know by it heart, and I also know by heart that it is on page 42 of the book I saved all this time. I think it is the only thing I still make from that book, but once you taste them, you will see why I am still making them on a regular basis! Not too sweet, just the right weight; they are heavenly. Kids tend to like them, and are also able to make them from the simple recipe, which is drawn out as a pictogram rather than as a traditional recipe. My daughter, who is 5, can do almost every step (with supervision of course!) and they come out perfectly. Better, I must add, than the one time I made them using peanut oil when my mom was out of vegetable oil and I didn’t yet know the difference and could not figure out why they tasted “off”… (OK I can only have been about 8 at the time, and I do consider baking a much better hobby for latch-key kids than mere TV watching.)

I usually make this (since I am nearly a middle-aged adult!) with half whole-wheat flour and half white, but being out of whole-wheat today, I made it strictly according to the recipe. And what a can’t-fail treat! I have no idea how many times I have passed this recipe on to friends, and am delighted to do so here as well. Whip up a batch today (really, it is quick and doesn’t even require a mixer) and enjoy the brown sugar-laced, high fiber goodness of these muffins that I have enjoyed steadily for 30 years.

OATMEAL MUFFINS:

1 cup oatmeal
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup oil
1 egg
½ cup brown sugar

• mix the oatmeal and milk in a big bowl, let soak
• sift the dry ingredients together in a smaller bowl
• add egg, oil and brown sugar to the oatmeal mix
• add the flour mix to the oatmeal mix; stir. Batter will be lumpy
• grease cupcake tray or use paper fillers; fill each ½ way with batter
• bake at 350 degrees for 25 min
• cool and serve warm

Harvey Wallbanger Cake

I must say, it feels funny to pour vodka into cake mix, but the result is something else!

I had been wanting to make this cake since the time a few years back when I had it at a Christmas pot luck and everyone there was exclaiming about it being THE 70s cake. Since I am now on my “70s kick” I just, well, had to! Plus, it was delicious, and, I was told, easy.

The problem is, I really like to work from vintage cook books and photos but, for the life of me, I could not find this recipe in print anywhere! None of my own recipe books, nor any of my boyfriend’s (but he DID have a Galliano pamphlet with drink recipes and an offer to buy a Party Kit with T shirts for just $2.00!) had the recipe, so I cheated and printed out the recipe from an online site about the history of different cocktails. (www.beercocktailsspirits.suite101.com) For this and so many other reasons, do I love the Internet.

From the (oracle) Internet, I enjoyed learning about Harvey, the surfer who drank too many Galiano screw-drivers and walked into the wall, thus the creation of the drink’s name. I admit, I giggled the whole time I mixed up the cake, which is almost cheating in itself, as it is merely a doctored mix with pudding and booze! Never mind, the batter alone was heavenly, and a lovely yellow-orange sunset color as well. I wondered whether I was getting drunk licking the spoon!

And easy cake, done in a bundt pan with the easiest of all toppings, a glaze (made with powdered sugar and more of the Harvey Wallbanger drink) that you dump over it and no matter how sloppy, it manages to look perfect.

This was made as a surprise cake for a friend’s birthday for a small group of about 12, and wow was it a hit! There was but one tiny sliver left at the end of the night, and my boyfriend and I fought over even that! AND everyone at the party requested the recipe.

AND so I say: LONG LIVE THE 70s!!!

Harvey Wallbanger Cake:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 small box instant vanilla pudding
• ½ cup oil
• 4 eggs
• ¼ cup vodka
• ¼ cup Galliano
• ¾ cup orange juice

Mix cake mix, pudding, oil, eggs, vodka, Galliano and orange juice, and beat for 4 minutes. Pour batter into a greased and floured tube (bundt) pan. Bake at 350 for 45 min, or until the cake tests as done.

Serve dusted with powdered sugar, or use a glaze made of 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon orange juice, 1 tablespoon vodka, and 1 tablespoon Galliano.

Menu Planning Pads

OK OK I know these are not vintage, but honestly, if you actually cook, and like to plan your meals in advance, or have kids and need to figure out what to cook what day of the week, or for any reason are particularly anal, you will WANT THESE PADS! (And, OK, some of them even have vintage-inspired graphics.) Basically it is a weekly sheet where you can list what you will cook each day, with a shopping list section next to it. Simple! And yet, deadly. Deadly useful, that is! I am a list kind of gal, and when I saw these at various places last year (Michael’s, Target $1.00 bin) I FLIPPED and bought about 6 pads. Which means I am set for about 6 years, perhaps even more! And now, at the beginning of each week, I plan out what meals I will be cooking, comparing these to the calendar of meals from my daughter’s school, factoring in trips to the Farmer’s Market, (where we often go on a Saturday but never know what will look good enough to bring home), and list out what items I need to shop for. NOW if only my planning system could assist me to find the ONE market that stocks everything I need…

Pizza!

I love pizza. Did I mention I LOVE pizza? In fact, I was actually married to someone who owns a pizza restaurant, is how much I love pizza! But… There is pizza, and then there is pizza.

In New York, for example, I had So Much delicious pizza, whether the shop was The First one, or whether that was the place down the street, I was happy with all of it. Even late at night (or perhaps because it was late) I was so in love with the pizza that I was motivated to take a photo of the pizza maker as he handed me my slice! That thin, old-fashioned style without too much going on except flavor is my favorite. Is it the water? Is it the secret recipe for sauce? We don’t know but we love it.

I even have a pizza cook book, and a hilarious one at that! Goldberg’s Pizza Book (1971 – and SO of the times, he even has a chapter telling you what kind of pizza to eat based on your astrological sign!) has a decent, bake-it-yourself dough recipe that works just fine in a home oven not hotter than 500 degrees (though most commercial pizza ovens are set to more like 800 degrees) and he also offers good sauces and toppings. I just don’t do pizza at home much because my daughter’s dad feeds it to her a lot, and I have to admit, it is way better than any I can cook at home.

But what is NOT better, and something I am ashamed to admit to even consuming, is the pizza from Chuck E Cheese’s. And that is ALL THEY DO! So why is it so terrible? Perhaps because kids don’t care! We were just there for a birthday, and buckets of the stuff got eaten, despite its being about as tasty as the box. When mixed with soda, candy, chocolate cake and the flashing lights and sirens of said venue, perhaps it is just fine. I don’t know, you tell me – here is a photo. Mmmmmmmmm!

Dinah Shore's Hamburger De Luxe

I recently got this gem of a 1971 cookbook by Dinah Shore, entitled “Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah” and, after amusing myself pondering her own (I am certain) amusement with the title, I actually read through it, eager to try one of her recipes. Most of the dishes in this book are either elaborate, for entertaining, or else they call for very large quantities of food, such as whole chickens or large cuts of meat. Since it was just my daughter and I for dinner, I searched for something I could cut in half, and came up with her “Hamburger De Luxe”. I always like to try variations on themes I know well, and I also knew that the little food critic at my table would be happy with hamburgers. Still, I had never used chicken broth in a hamburger before, and as I mixed the ingredients up, it became clear to me that there was just too much liquid, so I added about ¼ cup of breadcrumbs. The burgers held together nicely! The flavor was light and refined, even after I fried the onions to top the burger in bacon fat (since the very lean hamburger I used didn’t leave anything in the pan with which to cook the onions at the end). They ended up a bit “blackened” because I got a phone call while they were on the stove (of course!) but were not overdone inside, and mine tasted nice even minus the onion topping she recommended. My daughter slathered hers with A1 sauce, and pronounced it the BEST ever. Ah, 5 year-olds!

Patriotic Picnic Set

Now this is not a political blog, but since the President told me last night that the State of the Union is Strong, I am celebrating by getting out my Red White and Blue molded plastic picnic case! Set against the traditional red and white checkered tablecloth, it really shows its colors. In fact, putting any food in it might just take away from the bright “mod” statement. The stacking set is made of oval-shaped plastic, each layer in the set becoming its own place setting, comprising a covered plate, covered fruit cup, silver-ware holder (I added the Dansk forks) and white plastic drinking cup. The top layer is actually a lid with a handle, so the whole thing can be stacked up, snapped tight and toted off to your destination, be it boating, picnic, or political demonstration. And if it doesn’t rain this weekend, it might even get some use!

Crock Pot Tuna Noodle Casserole

So I tried the crock pot recipe for Tuna Noodle Casserole. Result: Dismal failure. In a word, BARF.

The other words I could use to describe it would be: total waste of canned fish, sad pile of goop, and the ever popular (well, OK it was popular in the 80s): GRODY. I can not bring myself to post a photo of the plated “serving”, since it so resembled ACTUAL road-kill. Not even freshly toasted bread crumbs AND grated extra-sharp Vermont cheddar could save this casserole from the compost bin. As much as I love my Crock Pot (which is, of course, vintage, so it did not come with the instructions, but I recently found the manual for the very unit elsewhere and picked this recipe from it to try), but I realize it has it’s limitations and that some dishes just do NOT adapt to slow cooking. I think my friend Kristine said it best when she pointed out that the idea of hot fish cooked for 8 hours in a slow-cooker didn’t sound, well, too hot.

Really, it is the same ingredients that go into a regular tuna casserole, which is something I can get my daughter to eat regularly - with glee, even. But not this night… this night she proclaimed: Mommy, I think you should go back to the OLD tuna casserole recipe. She means the recipe from the back of the package of golden egg noodles. See, it just goes to show you should NOT mess with the classics!

Blackberry

2 “blackberries” that I simply cannot live without! On the one had, try as I may, I cannot deny that I am living in the 21st century, and that things like smart phones REALLY are great… but then, I adore lovingly handmade jams and jellies, something many of us “kids” don’t even know how to make anymore. One of the things I am trying to teach my daughter is that food does not ACTUALLY originate in the store… though, believe me, there are times when I use the “other” BlackBerry to call up and order a pizza. On those days, I just shrug and say: OK then! We’ll get back to that lesson tomorrow.

Chocolate Malt Cookies aka DS-ers

As I sit engulfed in the intoxicating fumes of melting chocolate, (*NOTE: melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, if you are brave enough to own one of those new-fangled contraptions!), I perform the age-old ritual of watching the oven while the cookies bake, barely patient enough to endure the 12 -15 minutes needed to transform flour, salt, sugar and vanilla (and a few other key elements) into divine and heavenly baked-chocolate morsels. I also know full-well that I will not be able to wait for them to properly cool, and so I will burn my tongue, as I do every single time I bake these cookies.

I am starting with this recipe because it is quite possibly the first thing I ever learned to cook. Even before I went to French school, where we were taught how to bake Madeleines, and to kids’ cooking school, where I even cooked fish, (something I would not willingly consume for nearly 20 years) I helped my mother bake these, my dad’s favorite cookies. And though I didn’t use any vintage bake-ware in their creation (I have a new Kitchen Aid stand mixer, a new silicone scraper and I recently bought new cookie sheets), I will remove them from the oven with a vintage pot holder, and store them (Oh really, who am I kidding, like there will be any left in 20 minutes!) in vintage tupperware.

Though the cookies themselves are FABULOUS, it is really the name that is the story. As I have been told, when my mother was a new bride in 1965, she was told she needed to cook and bake up a storm to please her new husband. She did so, even cooking meat for him though she was a life-long vegetarian. So one day, she lovingly whipped up a batch of these Chocolate Malt Cookies, thinking how my dad was sure to love them as he tends to love anything made with chocolate, and these were a family favorite, dating back to the 20s. Now my father is not one to hide his feelings, and unfortunately, the shape and color of the cookies bore a striking resemblance (in his mind) to animal droppings! He apparently proclaimed that he was Not Eating any of those g-d Dog S*it cookies. Somehow my mother convinced him to try one (though I can’t imagine how, as this was a man who jumped RIGHT on the “Real Med Don’t eat Quiche” band wagon of the late 70s) and he discovered that, in fact, they were perhaps The Best thing he had ever eaten!

So thus, his new favorite cookies, the ones I helped cook every year thereafter for his birthday and on many, many other occasions, and, in fact, on a nearly weekly basis during one memorable phase in college, were christened: DS-ers!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (room temp)
3 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 oz unsweetened chocolate; melted (double boiler or microwave - do not scorch!)
2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts - OPTIONAL! My dad hates nuts so I don't include them

Method:
1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave, being careful not to scorch it
2. Cream butter, cheese and sugar, then add egg, milk and vanilla
3. Stir in melted chocolate
4. Sift dry ingredients together, add the liquid and blend
5. Stir in nuts IF USING
6. Drop from teaspoon onto cookie sheet (no need to grease or line) OR use a small melon baller
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 min
8. Remove to wire rack to cool - ENJOY!