You know you need just the right plates to serve your retro food on.

We have one plate at home that is perfect for retro food, but I am always on the lookout for more. When I saw these featured on Slashfood yesterday, I knew these were perfect for all the hip retro food cooks that swing by here. So, go grab some diner plates to use as your dinner plate or just to serve yourself some retro appetizers while you watch tv.

Another not so appetizing recipe to me, I think I must be off my feed or Meta is off her game. This sounds bland.
1½ lbs. boneless veal
Water to cover
1½ teaspoons salt
Leaves from 4 branches celery
8-oz package spaghetti
Dash pepper

Wipe veal with damp cloth; cut into 1-inch dice. Place in a saucepan with water to cover; add salt and celery leaves, cover and simmer about 1 hour or until veal is tender. Add enough boiling water to make 4 cups liquid, add broken spaghetti and pepper, cover and cook 15 to 20 minutes or until spaghetti is tender. Thicken liquid with flour-water paste, if desired. Remove celery. Serve hot. 5 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

This meat sundry recipe seems somehow so very British retro or colonial America. It does feature our vintage favorite bacon fat though!

Steak and Kidney Pie

½ lb beef kidney
2 tablespoons vinegar
¼ cup bacon fat
10 small white onions, ¼ lb.
1½ lbs ground steak or chuck
1 lb. diced pared potatoes
Pastry for single crust

Split kidneys and remove cores, tubes and membranous covering. (that whole thing, makes me glad I don’t cook meat) Soak 30 minutes in 1 quart cold water to which the vinegar has been added, then drain, dice and brown in 2 tablespoons of the fat. Barely cover with water, add 1 teaspoon salt and simmer slowly until tender, about 45 minutes. Add water from time to time as needed to keep meat covered with liquid. Cut onions in halves or quarters and sauté in remaining fat until slightly browned; add ground meat and rest of salt and continue cooking over moderate heat for 20 minutes, or until meat is nicely browned, stirring frequently. Meanwhile cook potatoes until tender in just enough boiling salted water to cover. Add the kidneys and potatoes with their cooking liquid to the ground meat. Thicken gravy if desired. Turn into an 8-inch casserole, cover with Plain Pastry gashed in several places to let steam escape. Bake in a moderately hot oven (425°F.) about 20 minutes or until crust is nicely browned. Serve hot. 5 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

It’s Best for You! and get some Schlitz Beer while you are at it! Do they still make Schlitz even? Admittedly, I never buy beer so it certainly could still be around…but I haven’t seen anything about it in years. Whole chickens for .39 a lb is appealling as well.

I have a confession: I love apple crumble. It feels so homey and warm and autumnal. It is a dessert comfort food that is simple and easy and oh so yummy. I tend to toss a bit of cinnamon and maybe nutmeg in. I also don’t peel and slice the apples, just core and wedge them.

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup shortening (half butter)
4 cups pared, cored and sliced tart apples

Combine flour and brown sugar and cut in shortening to make crumbly mixture. Arrange pared, sliced apples in a shallow baking dish (10 x6 x 2), sprinkle sugar mixture over top, and bake in a moderate oven (375° F.) about 30 minutes or until top is brown and crunchy and apples tender. 5 to 6 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

Not a custard, not a pudding but a frozen mousse-caramel style…wonder what might happen if you substitute that boiling water with coffee…

Be forewarned: you might need one of those mechanical refrigerators to make it…or surround your freezing can with ice.

1/2 cup sugar, caramelized
1/2 cup boiling water
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons evaporated milk
2 tablespoons cold water
1 tablespoon butter
1/16 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup whipping cream or evaporated milk, whipped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Caramelize the sugar to a rich amber color, and stir in the boiling water carefully all at once. Increase the heat and continue stirring until the caramel is all melted and the syrup is slightly thickened. Beat yolks until thick and lemon-colored; add the 2 tablespoons evaporated milk and the cold water. Pour the slightly cooled syrup over the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly. Then return the mixture to the skillet and cook for 2 minutes,  over low direct heat, stirring constantly until the custard is smooth and slightly thickened. Add the butter and salt, and cool. Have the whipping cream or 3/4 cup evaporated milk thoroughly chilled; then whip until stiff. Fold the cooled custard mixture and vanilla gently but thoroughly into the whipped cream or milk. Turn into freezing pans and place in the freezing compartment of a mechanical refrigerator, turning control to coldest point. Or if freezing with ice, place the mixture in the freezer can, close tightly and surround with a mixture of 1 part salt to 4 parts cracked ice; let stand without turning until frozen hard, or for 2 to 3 hours. Do not remove from freezer until ready to serve. 5 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

This slimming favorite comes from the same 1974 newspaper food section. This one has a shortcut for those “lucky ladies lucky enough to own microwave ovens”. Chinese Style Asparagus Beef!

This seems like a Little Jack Horner dessert to me
Plain Pastry for double crust

1/2 cup sugar, scant

Cinnamon, if desired

Roll out pastry in rectangular shape and about 1/8-inch thick. Then cut into 4-inch squares. Place a washed whole blum in the center of each square and sprinkle each with two teaspoons of sugar. Wet edges of crust with water or egg white. Bring corners up to center and pinch edges together firmly. Bake 25 to 40 minutes in a hot oven. (425 degrees F.) Serve with cinnamon combined with remaining sugar and cream, if desired. 5 servings. The Modern Family Cookbook

These corn recipes come courtesy of a friend finding a 1974 food section from The Gainesville Sun when cleaning out some boxes in our office suite. An interesting curried corn salad (mayo!) and a tuna and corn salad.

This doesn’t seem fundamentally different than the recent Pineapple Bavarian, I thought for a moment I was mistaken and it was the same recipe, but no, just VERY similar; amazing the number of retro jello recipes using pineapple and lemon gelatin.
1 package lemon-flavored gelatin
1¼ cups hot water
3 to 4 tablespoons lemon juice (juice of 1 lemon)
1 9-oz. can crushed pineapple
½ cup whipping cream or evaporated milk, chilled
Pinch salt

Dissolve gelatin in the hot water; add all but 1 teaspoon of the lemon juice, and the juice drained from the crushed pineapple. Chill until syrupy. Have the cream or evaporated milk ice cold; turn into a bowl surrounded by cracked ice, and beat until thick. Then add the remaining 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and salt and continue beating until mixture just holds its shape. Whip the gelatin mixture, stirring in the drained pineapple; then fold in the whipped cream or evaporated milk. Continue chilling at least 1 hour; it does not become very stiff. Serve in sherbet glasses. 5 servings.  The Modern Family Cookbook