My father loved Dry Sack sherry. Our neighbors often gave him a new bottle every Christmas. That bottle would last more than the year…my father didn’t drink often. But it always struck me as something so sophisticated. I still have one of those bottles of Dry Sack in my house. My father drank his neat…but the following is a traditional English drink…at least according to the Osterizer Holiday Ideas cookbooklet from 1964. It will certainly be a frugal way to serve alcohol at your next retro party.

Sack Posset

3 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs
1/2 cup sherry

Put all ingredients except sherry into OSTERIZER container, cover and process at Lo until well mixed. Pour into a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened. Add sherry slowly, stirring constantly. Serve warm in mugs or punch cups, or chill before serving. Yield: 8 1/2-cup portions.

Just the thing for a hairy, scary Halloween beverage…or to perk up your morning any day of the year, from the Mary Meade Magic Recipes (yes, I know I am stuck on it lately, but I love the name AND the recipes). I tend to skip the simmering with today’s moister coconut, but if you buy organic or your coconut is a bit dry, definitely simmer.

Orange Coconut Flip

Simmer for 10 minutes, covered
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut
3 cups water

Cool, strain and add
1 can frozen orange juice
1 cup cracked ice

Blend about 15 seconds. Pour over more cracked ice in tall glasses.

I needed tomato juice for this recipe for Roadside Bean and Potato Salad which is on the menu this week at our house. Instead of thinking this out clearly and realizing that I could use the tomato juice drained from the Macaroni with Tomatoes and Summer Vegetables recipe from AICR; (I can’t find that recipe on their site right now-I received it in their Health-E Recipes Weekly email newsletter, which by the way is very nice.) we put tomato juice on the grocery list. So, while we were bright and didn’t get the huge can that needs to be used up in the next 2 days or else, we do have quite a bit of tomato juice at our house. Yes, the can may have been more economical per ounce, but not if we didn’t use it up.

We will eventually need to use it though. I am not sure that any of these recipes from the Campbell Cookbook Easy Way to Delicious Meals will be quite my choice for using up the rest. Wait, the dilly vegetable juice might work-it sounds kind of like an easy gazpacho. The V-8 A la Mode- NO WAY! Lime sherbet with tomato juice?

What do you do to use up unusual ingredients in your house? Do you just avoid recipes with them in the first place? Have you got any V-8 recipes to use it up? I will drink it-but only about once a year.

Eye Opener

3 cups “V-8″ juice
1/2 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire
Dash “Tabasco” sauce
Combine all ingredients. Heat; simmer a few minutes. 4 to 6 servings

Lime ‘n “V-8″

Thin slices of lime
3 cups “V-8″ juice
4 teaspoons lime juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
6 drops “Tabasco” sauce
For garnish, prepare ice cubes by placing twisted lime slices in each cube compartment; fill with water and freeze. Combine remaining ingredients’ chill. Pour over ice cubes in glasses. 4 to 6 servings.

Dilly Vegetable Juice

3 cups “V-8″ juice
2 tablespoons finely chopped cucumber
Generous dash dill seed
Sour cream
Combine “V-8: juice, cucumber, and dill. Simmer a few minutes; stir now and then. Garnish with sour cream. 4 to 6 servings.
NOTE: To serve cold, combine “V-8″ juice, cucumber, and dill. Chill 3 to 4 hours.

“V-8″ a la Mode

3 cups “V-8″ juice, chilled
4 teaspoons lemon juice
Lime sherbet
Cinnamon
Combine “V-8″ juice and lemon juice; pour into chilled glasses. Top each with a small scoop of sherbet. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Stir and serve. 4 to 6 servings.

Now I know that everyone and their cousin has a Gazpacho recipe these days. Now, once upon a time, Gazpacho was exotic and Tomato Bouillon commonplace. So, try this for a refreshing summer retro treat. Retro soup, cocktail, and beverage all in one!

Tomato Bouillon on the Rocks

1/4 cup diced celery
1/4 cup diced carrots
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 sprigs parsley
4 cups canned tomato juice (or homemade)
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
6 whole cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups canned bouillon or consomme, chilled
6 lemon slices
6 green scallions or celery sticks

Early on the day, if desired :

1. In large saucepan, combine all ingredients except bouillon, lemon slices, scallions. Bring to boil; cover; simmer over low heat 1 hour.

2. Strain; then refrigerate

15 minutes before serving:

1. Combine chilled tomato mixture with bouillon.

2. Serve in Old-fashioned glasses, filled one-fourth full with crushed ice. Garnish each with a lemon slice which has been snipped in center and has a scallion threaded through this center. Makes 6 servings.

For some reason this morning the A & W Root Beer jingle is going through my head. So, go throw a mug in the freezer for 20 minutes or so. Then scoop yourself some vanilla ice cream-real ice cream-not that whipped low fat stuff-that won’t work- into it. Then…pour some root beer in, down the side of the glass. Skip that fancy overpriced all natural root beer. Get some Hires or A & W. It will taste better, like your childhood. The fancy stuff…better for straight up drinking.

Do you have a favorite summertime drink?

Ok, this is not really a recipe but thought I would share it anyway since it just is so well…instructive. The milk part is kind of intriguing though. Anyone ever made bouillon with milk?

Place 1 bouillon cube in each cup and pour boiling water over it, stirring until dissolved. Strength of bouillon will depend on size of cup and amount of water used. Canned beef bouillon requires only heating, and if condensed, the addition of water to prepare for serving. A pleasing drink, which is not a true bouillon, is prepared by substituting hot milk for water with either the bouillon cube or canned bouillon. The Modern Family Cookbook

No need to serve coffee for the adults and milk for the children when you make this delicious treat for a meal. Reminds me of the prune milkshake but then again…I do remember some pineapple buttermilk ice cream I liked once upon a time.

Pineapple Buttermilk

Fruit Buttermilk

3 cups thick buttermilk
1½ cups canned fruit juice or juice from canned fruit
3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
Combine all ingredients and stir until sugar dissolves. Serve well chilled. Will not curdle on standing. 5 servings.
Red cherry, apricot, pineapple, peach, and grape juice all combine well with buttermilk; or mixed juices may be used. The Modern Family Cookbook

I am all for a nice Saturday cocktail. Particularly when it is retro and non-alcoholic as these are (yes, I have a secret fondness for a single glass of tomato juice from time to time, particularly fresh tomato juice). However, I am most interested in the vintage Kix cereal recipe down at the bottom; buttered or cheese Kix. I may have to make some.

Also includes recipes for tomato juice, tomato bouillon, tomato-sauerkraut juice, tomato-clam juice (Clamato!), Bouillon or Consommé, Jellied Bouillon (for those hot days!), vegetable cocktail,cranberry cocktail (festive!), spiced cider, minted citrus juice (sounds refreshing!), as well as simple accompaniments like potato chips topped with grated Parmesan cheese, then toasted and buttered crackers with celery seed or paprika. From Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook

The clever wife has a simple appetizing cocktail (cold in summer, hot in winter) ready for her weary husband when he comes home at night.

Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, 1950, First Edition, Published by McGraw-Hill Book Company and General Mills, Inc

I swear, this is fascinating to me. Really. I definitely want to try. I mean, won’t the lemon juice curdle the milk? Doesn’t a milk shake need ice cream? Prunes are creamy and sweet but can they handle milk shake-ification? Will my children believe this is a treat?

Prune Shake

1½ cups prune purée (about ½ lb. dried prunes)
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1/16 teaspoon salt
4½ cups milk, chilled
Sugar to taste

Mix the prune purée thoroughly with the lemon juice and salt. Add milk and beat with rotary beater; add sugar to suit the taste, amount depends on sweetness of prunes. Chill before serving. 5 or 6 servings.