This past weekend we went to a Pride Festival that was a bust but on the way home from it we passed a…VINTAGE KITCHEN store!

From a 1958 Good Housekeeping Cookbooklet Hamburger and Hot Dog Cookbooklet purchased there…it seems appropriate to share the Rainbow Toss recipe first…really a macaroni salad. Ok if you see the circus tent illustration and think of the combo of sliced hot dogs and rainbow tossing…maybe too camp to even consider.

Hey, what can you expect? I have been sitting at the hospital since early morning with a mother who is having a really tough time and could use your prayers and good thoughts. Or I could. Or both of us. Or just all of us. So many people have so much more going on in their lives this week.

Rainbow Toss

1 8-oz pkg elbow macaroni, cooked, chilled
1 teasp salt
1 cup sliced celery, cut on angle
3/4 cup diced, pared cucumbers
1/3 c minced green peppers
1/4 c minced onion
1/4 cup sliced stuffed olives
1/4 c liquid drained from olives
4 chopped, hard-cooked eggs
1 cup cooked salad dressing
1 lb franks, thinkly sliced diagonally
2 teasp. prepared mustard
1/8 teasp pepper.

Mix macaroni with rest of ingredients. Toss well; refrigerate until chilled. Makes 8 servings.

Today has been a sad day. Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson have died. One very expected. One very sudden.

Farrah Fawcett was the background girl to be when I was a child. The flipped hair…I have a picture of my attempt somewhere.  She was strong, interesting, smart, yet beautiful and popular. Really beautiful.Then there were the tv movies that brought issues like domestic abuse home and hope.  Yeah, I wanted to be her when I grew up…complete with Lee Majors.

Then Michael Jackson…there were the little kid Michael Jackson shows I saw here and there. Then…Thriller…the build up…the trip to my sister’s house (she lived nearby at the time and had CABLE!) I remember the drama, the goosebmps, the sheer wow factor…sitting on the dark floor watching this guy and some zombies. Of course, I had the album. And the Bad album. There was no getting away from him being part of the soundtrack of my life. I did a white glove thing for a while while finding out who I was at 13. I tried and failed for years to be able to moonwalk. Not only that…his birthday was the only celebrity birthday ever listed with mine.

I never was a fainting fan. I did get goosebumps every time I saw a live interview or live show on tv. He had sparkle…not just on his clothes. He turned it on and off but he had incredible sparkle. His performances are unforgettable.

So, just  a bit of my 70s and 80s childhood…and a feeling like I am indeed getting old and it isn’t just those “old” people on tv when I was a kid who die and make me sad.

Another Southern favorite and one hard to avoid if you are a vegetarian in the south is Green Beans with Bacon. Those green beans on the veggie plate? Not vegetarian. Just warning you.

They are darn good though.

1/2 cup bacon, diced
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
2 cups cooked green beans

Cook slowly for 10 minutes to an hour (if you start with uncooked green beans). Add a bit of salt and pepper if you are the sort.

We are southern folks here and stuck in the great white north with its many charms but no sweet tea.

Just in case you were wondering…here is how I make sweet tea.

10-12 black tea bags
3/4-2 cups sugar
1/2 gallon of water

Boil that up on the stove until the tea is dark and the sugar dissolves. Then dump into a gallon pitcher. Top off with cold water and/or ice. Chill.

Be mystified when you must rinse and repeat the next day…especially when your tea drinkers are suffering from southern homesickness.

Note: Instant sweet tea does not substitute for the house wine of the south.

There area two seasons for fried green tomatoes–early…when tomatoes have set and grown but will not be ripe FAST ENOUGH. That is right now. In the fall when the first frost is nigh and you have a ton of not a chance they will ripen green tomatoes. Or you can just pony up at the farmer’s market for them. Oddly, they can be MORE expensive than ripe tomatoes…darn non frugal sorts getting in on the simple pleasures of retro food.
So how to fry them?

Grab 5 or 6 green tomatoes. Rinse them off. Slice tomatoes in 1/4 inch slices. In a small flat bowl, throw a couple handfuls of flour (oh about 3/4-1 cup for you measuring sort), salt and pepper to taste. Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons of shortening, bacon grease, or butter in a skillet. Dredge tomatoes in flour mixture. Fry on medium heat until crispy on both sides.

Yummy! And as the new blogger in the family says “Can you make some fried green tomatoes again soon? I love them!”

We are having an entirely entertaining week here. Ok, not entirely…the house is a mess, work is crazy, technology is failing. Other than that though, the entertainment factor of this week is high!

So what better to serve on the blog than a Cheese Ball recipe from a Junior League of Montclair cookbook titled “Entirely Entertaining” from 1968? We are nutty enough in this family without the pecans, so generally skip them. I am all about simplicity and go with the crock packing method as well. Ok, and my cheese balls/cheese logs always end up looking distorted/defective-anyone have any tips there?

Nice served with some good crackers. Our current favorite: Wheat Thins Fiber Selects 5 grain or 7 grain-whatever they are–not the veggie ones, though I hear the veggie ones are tasty too.

Cheese Ball

8 oz package cream cheese
1/4 lb Bleu cheese
1/4 lb sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 small onion, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Mix all ingredients except the parsley. Roll into a ball and roll ball in parsley. Chill. (Note: This may also be packed in a crock without the parsley.)

I announced here in April that I intended to be a Blogher Community Keynote Speaker. Our white board in the kitchen has said since before that post “Tarrant needs a Bettie Page Dress for her Blogher Community Keynote. Yes, I tend to be a bit Nakedjen in my thinking.

I wrote. I submitted. I won. So did 20 other really fabulous folks. (REALLY wonderful. I am seriously honored to be in this group)

But, now, I can’t think of a thing for dinner.

I didn’t know what to blog tonight. So I thought I would interview the youngest child, 10, about my cooking.

Me: What is the best thing about my cooking?
YC: Your baking
Me: What about my baking?
YC: That it tastes good and I like your cookies.
Me: Which cookies?
YC: Those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kisses
Me: Not the Jim Bars?
YC: No, not the Jim Bars
Me: Anything else you want to say about my cooking?
YC: You also make Jim Bars good.
Denise: But you don’t like them
YC: I just never eat them. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them.

Compelling interview right? Ah well. I shouldn’t have tried while she is playing with some iPhone app.

Dessert sounds good to me tonight. It just has been that kind of day. Even better-a refrigerator dessert! This one comes from a Mary Mead Recipes booklet from the Chicago Tribune-1962.

We have an abundance of vanilla wafers so that helps too!

Toffee Refrigerator Dessert

6-8 servings

1 cup vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 sq unsweetened chocolate (I will have to sub cocoa and oil here)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup nutmeats, finely chopped

Line bottom of 8-inch square pan or large freezing tray with half the vanilla wafer crumbs. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in slightly beaten egg yolks and melted chocolate. Cool slighlt and fold in stiffly beaten egg whites and vanilla. Spread over crumbs and top with remaining crumbs and nutmeats. Place in freezing compartment of refrigerator to chill for 24 hours. Mixture will become firm but not frozen. Cut in squares and serve plain or top each serving with a small scoo

Back, well I could pinpoint the date within a few weeks, since I was due with my now 15 year old son, the retro recipes belonging to my great-grandmother came into my possession.

We were also broke. I had lost my job while pregnant. Finding a new job 8 months pregnant is not easy. My mother had come to help out with the birth of my first born.

We were stretching pennies and got a 50 lb bag of potatoes and a 25 lb bag of onions at a produce stand. This led to many creative uses of these staples.

One of which has apparently gotten me a reputation with my younger children’s father…the stuffed onions. In all fairness, I enjoyed them, as did my mother and I did NOT make them. My mom did. I imagine you would like them too. But apparently, he did not. They are as big of a legend as the asparagus jell-o (though the stuffed onions are admittedly better than asparagus aspic-at least to a larger segment of the dining public)

Why am I rambling about this? Because the new 500 Delicious Dishes from Leftovers cookbook I got over the weekend (ok as new as one can get when something was printed in 1949) has a stuffed onions recipe! Yay! Not only that it has a picture (I will try to coax the scanner into life at some point soon) and a caption: Glistening stuffed onions on a favorite chop plate will intrigue your family and guests.

Yes, they will intrigue. But, warning, they may intrigue people so far into the future that they become a cooking: FAIL legend. Or a delight. Give them a try. I like them. They are frugal in any case.

Baked Stuffed Onions

6 Large onions
3/4 cup soft bread crumbs
3/4 cup chopped cooked chicken
3/4 cup thin white sauce
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup buttered cracker crumbs
Salt and pepper.

Remove skins from onions and boil in salted water, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Drain and turn upside down to cool. Remove centers of onions, leaving shell sufficiently thick to retain shape. Chop onion which was removed from center and combine with remaining ingredients except buttered cracker crumbs. Stuff onion shells with mixture, sprinkle with cracker crumbs, and bake in moderate oven (350 F.) until onions are tender-~40 min. Serves 6.