Jan 27
Tarrant FiglioAppetizers, Cheese, Recipes, retro food appetizer, dip, retro, romance
Do you ski? Kraft has a solution for you! Or they did. I can’t find the Olive Pimento cheese spread anymore-just the pimento cheese spread. (Note for those of you who are foodies out there-Kraft jars of Pimento Cheese are not at all kin to THE Pimento Cheese. They are more like oh one of those Philly cream cheese flavored spreads. It doesn’t matter, just grab two jars of Kraft Pasteurized cheese spreads-maybe near the Velveeta in your store. They could be near the American Cheese case. 
Anyhow, Chalet dip promises a hot and hearty dip to warm up chilly skiers. I can tell you it is a hot and easy dip or dinner if say you are on your own or just want to have a quiet easy romantic meal without the mess or fuss of real fondue. Candlelight, the two of you sharing a loaf of bread (oh who cares about the 1-inch cubes-tear it like heathens) Grab a piece of fruit or two. Let it go from there.
Or of course, you could pretend it is a fab Grammys or Super Bowl Party food. It is…I just got carried away thinking of my last “fondue” or fond of you night with my love.
Chalet Dip
1 5 oz jar Old English Pasteurized Process Cheese Spread, Sharp
1 5 oz jar Kraft Olive Pimento Pasteurized Neufchatel Cheese Spread
2 Tablespoons dry sherry
French Bread, cut in 1-inch cubes
Combine the two 5-oz jars with sherry; heat thoroughly over low heat, stirring occasionally. Serve warm with bread as dippers. 1 1/4 cups.
Sorry source buffs…that little ripped out piece of magazine has no dating information on it or even anything on the other side that would help me…just the pictures of the jars and I can’t positively id a year for that style.
Aug 26
Tarrant FiglioAppetizers, Eggs Eggs, Recipes, retro
The strangest thing has happened since we have moved. The dozen eggs we routinely bought every few weeks…just sits. We are childfree except when the younger kids are here and one of them is strongly anti-egg. The girl child who made scrambled eggs on a regular basis–has her own place now. I can’t seem to remember to boil eggs for egg salad so it is cold by lunch time. In any case, we have a dozen eggs that has not moved since it came to this house. Maybe deviled eggs will break the eggs back in.
I am considering these, because one of the kids LOVES cheese nips. LOVES them. I will use less mayo though…but do note the interesting method with the breading of one end of the egg.
Cheese Deviled Eggs
6 hard-cooked eggs
1 tsp mustard
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c. finely crushed cheese crackers
1/2 c. mayonnaise
paprika
Halve eggs lengthwise; remove yolks. Press yolks through a fine sieve; (oh just smush them with a fork); add mustard, parsley, salt, pepper, and 1/2 of the crumbs and mayonnaise. Refill centers of whites with yolk mixture; press two halves together.. Dip one end of each egg into remaining mayonnaise and into crumbs. Sprinkle with paprika. Yield: 6 servings. From Favorite Salad Recipes of America.
Aug 13
Tarrant FiglioCandy, Desserts, Recipes, Salads, retro food Jell-o, marzipan, retro
Marzipan is hot these days. After years of being a creepy, foreign seeming thing (though my father loved it and my mother made real marzipan for him every other year or so), marzipan is popping up all over…even in some of our new grocery stores.
This recipe though is from long ago and is an easy-to-make marzipan that doesn’t require almond paste! If you are making this mainly for the pretty decoration and don’t like the heavy almond flavor you can even cut down or eliminate the almond extract or use vanilla instead. (oh the Marzipan purists will be horrified)
Marzipan
1 package Baker’s fine grated coconut
1 package (3 oz) Jell-0 Gelatin (any fruit flavor)
1 cup grated blanched almonds
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
Thoroughly mix all ingredients. Shape as small fruits, vegetables, hearts, Easter eggs or other forms. If desired, use food coloring to paint details on fruit and add stems of whole cloves or angelica. Chill until dry. Store, covered, at room temperature. Makes 2 to 3 dozen candies. From Joys of Jell-0, ~1960
For fruits use:
strawberry – strawberry gelatin
bananas, pears, lemons-lemon gelatin
green apples, leaves-green gelatin (err lemon-lime/lime)
oranges-orange gelatin
Cherries-cherry or black cherry gelatin
Aug 06
Tarrant FiglioRecipes, Salads, Vegetables, retro food jell-0, retro
I have to confess something…if I use the word surprise to describe any recipe…my children automatically beg to eat out or are suddenly struck by stomach aches. Why? I have no idea.
Allergy to the word surprise? Who knows. I, however, love a little surprise in my dinner.
This recipe seems like it will do the trick. Will renaming it coax children to eat it? Or will it suffer the fate of the Asparagus Jell-0?
From Joys of Jell-0, early 1960s I think by the look of it.
Note the fabulous economy of using the can from the tomatoes for the mold. Imagine the surprise the kids will have when I unmold a Jell-0 salad from a pineapple can!!!! They like pineapple! and tomatoes! and Jell-0! How could I go wrong?
Ok…so maybe they are not so keen on the surprise or the three combined.
Tomato Surprise
A can of flavorful stewed tomatoes becomes a tempting mold
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 3 oz package Jell-o lemon, strawberry or mixed fruit gelatin
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
Pour tomatoes into saucepan, saving can to use as mold. Bring tomatoes to a boil, add Jell-o and salt, stirring until dissolved. Add vinegar. Pour into can. Chill until firm. To unmold, puncture bottom of can before dipping into warm water. Serve with mayonnaise, if desired. Makes about 2 cups, or 4 side salads, OR 6 relish servings.
If you increase the vinegar to 1 1/2 tablespoons and add a can of drained crushed pineapple, and a smidge of allspice, you can make Tomato Pineapple Surprise. You need to use both your tomato can and your pineapple can for molds in that case.
Jul 30
Tarrant FiglioRecipes, Salads, retro food retro, salad
It is National Take a Salad to Work Day. It is a little late to get started on a Jell-o salad to take to work, so how about a luncheon salad?
I have to say, I was NOT a carrot salad fan as a child. I have found though, I am more and more fond of carrot salads as I get older. They are a nice combo of sweet, nutritious, and savory.
This one, from Favorite Salad Recipes of America…You can easily eliminate or cut the amount of pecans or substitute almonds or antoher nut.
Luncheon Salad
6 fresh carrots, washed and scraped
6 hard-cooked eggs
1 cup pecans
1 sm. onion
salt to taste
mayonnaise
6 soda cracker, crumbled (take some in a separate bag if packing for lunch)
6 lettuce leaves
Put carrots, eggs, pecans and onion through food chopper (food processor) using medium blade. (Or shred the carrots, mince the eggs, chop onion and pecans fine) Combine ground ingredients with salt and enough mayonnaise to hold mixture together in salad bowl. Add crackers just before serving. Serve on lettuce leaves. Egg yolks may be mashed instead of ground. Yield: 6 servings.
Jul 17
Tarrant FiglioBlogHer, Recipes, Salads, retro food BlogherCon 08, retro, Salads
Another California recipe, another salad recipe. More grapefruit! In 1942 grapefruit and walnuts must have screamed California! I am amused that it is called salad cups, but served on plates.
Less than 24 hours until Blogher Conference 08 in San Francisco.
California Salad Cups
1 cup diced, membrane-free grapefruit sections
1 cup diced pineapple
1 cup diced, membrane-free orange sections
1 cup sliced banana
1/2 cup broken walnut meats
lettuce
1 pkg. (3 oz.) cream cheese
1 tbs. liquid honey
1 tbs. lemon juice
1/2 cup whipping cream
4 walnut meat halves
Combine grapefruit, pineapple, orange, and banana; drain. Add broken nut meats. Arrange lettuce on salad plates; fill with fruit mixture. Mash cream cheese; add honey and lemon juice. Whip cream slightly; add to cream cheese mixture. Mask fruit with cheese mixture. Garnish with nut meat halves. Serves 4.
Jul 16
Tarrant FiglioSalads, retro food BlogHer, retro, salad
I had an excellent avocado (everywhere seems to have avocado on something) BLT last night at Angelica’s Bistro here in Redwood City. The spicy aioli promised…not spicy at all. Just call it mayo with speckles. The French roll suffered from a non bread area’s version of French roll. Still the sandwich as a whole was good. Quite good
The bruschetta with cheese had a lot of celery and walnuts, interesting in a retro sort of way. A second olive might have been nice since we shared the appetizer and there was only one. The portobello sandwich that Denise got was good, I think. The salad that came with the sandwiches, limp, unattractive and ignorable. Mexican hot coco really excellent.
Service slow, really slow for an empty restaurant, considering the order was a couple of sandwiches. Nearly impossible to get coffee refills, despite the fact that the waiter and the manager/owner/whatever had plenty of time to chit chat with the guy at the next table over.
Anyhow, we would maybe go back…the garden was lovely, even if we were freezing. The menu was interesting and reasonably priced. If the service was paced better and we were spared the self-important gentlemen, it would be a definite. Who needs a fresh salad?
Oh wait…here is a salad recipe…fresh and California for you to enjoy on your own pretty patio.
From the Pocket Cook Book by Elizabeth Woody, 1942.
California Salad
Serves 4
1 avocado
1 cup membrane-free grapefruit sections
6 ripe olives
Lemon Lime Dressing
Lettuce
Peel avocado; halve lengthwise. Remove seed; cut avocado in crosswise slices. Chop olives’ combine with avocado and grapefruit. Moisten with dressing. Serve on lettuce.
Lemon Lime Dressing
Makes 1 3/4 cups
4 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp lime juice
2 tbs. sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
Combine lemon and lime juices, mayonnaise or salad dressing and sugar. Whip cream slightly; fold in.
Jun 18
Tarrant FiglioRecipes, Salads, retro food Jell-o, retro
This is the dish that I introduced to our blended family’s holidays. Well, that and eggs Benedict. It is one that everyone will eat. So it definitely, goes on the list of recipes to send our daughter out in the world with.
1 large box Strawberry Banana Jell-0 (or any red Jell-0…but I use the strawberry banana)
1 envelope Knox gelatin (optional)
1/2 cup red hots (You can use anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
2 cups boiling water
2 cups applesauce (in the recipe I scrawled in the back of my Cookbook for Boys and Girls it says 1 can which means I always say I need a can…even though canned applesauce no longer seems to exist)
Dissolve red hots in boiling water in a small saucepan on the stove. Mix the red jell-o powder and Knox in a bowl. When red hots are dissolved, pour into gelatins and stir until dissolved. Stir in applesauce. You will want to wait until the boiled water/Jell-o mixture cools a little before adding the applesauce or go back in and stir in about a 1/2 hour. Otherwise, the applesauce will settle and it won’t be as evenly distributed. Stick it in the fridge until it gels.
Note: The Knox isn’t necessary but you will want to add it if you like a firmer Jell-0 salad OR you want to do it in a mold that you turn it out and slice it.
May 20
Tarrant FiglioFish, Recipes, retro food retro, tuna
This recipe from the Alachua General Hospital Auxiliary cookbook doesn’t fuss with a fancy name or fancy prep. It just is plain old comfort food with nothing special.
Tuna with Mushroom Soup
1 can mushroom soup
1/2 soup can of whole milk
1 6 1/2 oz can tuna
1 c English peas, cooked and drained
2 hard boiled eggs, diced
In sauce pan mix soup and milk, over low heat bring to boil. While boiling, add tuna and peas, stirring with fork. Boil about 2 minutes, add eggs. Serve while hot over canned noodles or rice. ~Mrs Carl Williams
May 19
Tarrant FiglioMeat, Recipes, retro food meatloaf, retro
This recipe is from a hand bound, adorable, cookbook created by the Alachua General Hospital Auxiliary in 1969. I will have pictures soon. You will love the cover–little felted pink dresses on oilskin. This makes little cupcake meatloaves so perfect if you live alone or have a small family.
2/3 c saltine crackers
1 c milk
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 beaten eggs
1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix
catsup for sauce
Soak crackers in milk, add meat, eggs, and soup mix. Mix well. Form well-rounded loaves in greased cupcake pans. Top with catsup. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes depending on degree of doneness. Makes 8 individual loaves. Mrs Karl the Losen
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