The solar cooking was a success and the garden work was partially completed (it was interrupted by a quick moving thunderstorm which appeared out of the blue). I have photos from the solar cooking, and a few of the garden to share, but first I want to share the project I was working on during the thunderstorm.
While it stormed outside I was thumbing through my old 1971 Betty Crocker cookbook and realized it was too good not to share. When my mom got married to her first husband (no relation to me) in 1971, his mother gave the following cookbook to my hapless mom. She used it to help build up her skill level at cooking, and passed it along to me when I moved to Michigan 10 years ago.
As much as I love to make fun of The Betty Crocker Universe, it does have some good basic resource information which is helpful. If I was an appropriate 21st century girl I'd pop online and look up basic cooking info when needed, but I'm pretty old school insofar as I prefer to dig out a book and look it up the old fashioned way, if I know I have the info in a book.
But that's not why I felt compelled to share the cookbook with you all...I felt the need to share it because it is a true oddity...the weird time warp cookbook where they try to impress 1950s housewife mindset on you with a cookbook done in a late 60s/early 70s style. And you can't beat the Indoctrination In the Cult of Betty Crocker propaganda photos....That said, here are the highlights from the book:
It's orange! And there are muddy "earth tone" colors in the design! And there's fondue! It's so dated that it's fabulous.
The table of contents cracks me up...."Woo! It's easy! You, too, can cook my sister! All mysteries will be revealed on the pages listed here..."
Yo! Be a Betty Crocker Clone and everyone will love you! Even the kids!
Respect the Betty Crocker Kitchens....or die...
Only the best for Betty Crocker and you....if you cook using our recipes and techiques your kitchen will be magically transformed into this fabulous mega kitchen!
Wee! Terrible retro appetizers alert! The best of the bunch pictured are below...
Of course, you gotta love the cheese balls, but my favorite one is this guy:
Petals 'N Pickles?! WTF?!? It's as scary as Hell.
I also adore the tragically weird table settings. Oh late 60s/early 70s, how glad I am that I was not around to have this aesthetic inflicted on me. The 1980s were bad enough:
Stylin!
But, wait, don't go away....there's more. This treasure trove of a cookbook also contains scraps and snippets of recipes, some handwritten from recipes given by family or friends, others were pulled from magazines. This is my favorite one, courtesy of the 1970s California Oregon Washington Dairymen (love the non-PCness of it...DairyMEN! Of course I like to consult the dairyMEN for my recipe needs):
I also want to point out that I present the above advert as proof that my cheese obsession is genetic. I should've photographed the reverse side of the ad as well...it proclaimed that smoking is hot, hip and good for you....
8 comments:
I love these! I have my grandma's cookbooks, some from the 70's but most of them closer to the 40s-50s before Betty Crocker became some sort of orange melamine freakshow. I also have a 1930's Better Homes and Gardens that I adore for their frugality...recipes for using cuts of meat that *noone* would use now. Part of me just likes the 50s domestic perfection quality of those old books...lovely meals with no waste, Dad compliments mom on the good meal while mom straightens her bee hive hair do and wipes the flour off her 3 inch high heels that she wears everyday, even while vaccuuming. Sigh.
I was born in 1972. I remember my mom hosting her Bridge Club on occasion. There were many cheese balls and fondue pots. Our dining room wall paper was partially fuzzy and partially metallic-in stripes. We had blue shag carpet. My grandmother wore her hair in a giant bouffant and blue eye shadow. Fisher Price made doll house furniture in the current style. My kitchen table for my doll house was a tulip table and chairs, with yellow padding on the chairs. We listened to Bee Gees records on the turntable. My dad fixed up the brown Chevy van with brown carpet and naugahide.
The 70s were magical. Really magical. What fun it must have been to be an adult in the 70s.
If you've never read the book "The Gallery of Regrettable Food" by James Lileks, you absolutely MUST look it up. It is HYSTERICAL.
His "Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes From the Horrible 70s" is also a huge win. :D
I had forgotten about a couple of 'Heloise' books I picked up at a yard sale last summer for a dime each...from the 50's I think. Lots of funny tips.
You're just a smidge older than me, so I don't remember as much about the 70's as you do. BUT, our first house hadn't been remodeled since the 70's so we had a brief lesson in 70's tackiness.
Our bathroom had what can only be described as Crayola shag carpeting. Take every blue crayon out of the big box, toss them together and that's the colors of our shag carpet. Then add red white and blue striped wallpaper AND a shower curtain with blue fuzzy dangly pompoms.
Our living room was painted sky blue with one wall done in a foil/metallic wallpaper and olive drab shag carpeting (covering up the hardwood floors???????).
The kitchen, oy the kitchen, had 3 layers of wallpaper, the toppermost with strawberries and birds. And your standard issue yellowed linoleum floor.
The worst part, that I blame myself for entirely, is the cool 50s-70s stuff that I threw away. The contents came with the house and there was so much interesting stuff that I just chucked, simply for lack of room. Live and learn.
Clarification alert: I, this 'ere blog owner, was born in 1977. Meg from "Meg On the Bus" blog and "Meg in the Kitchen" blog was born in 1972. I, happily, do not remember the 1970s, but my grandparents & great grandparents on my dad's side had some definitely holdovers in their decor, clothing, and hairstyles which are my early memories in the early 1980s
I have to point out that the clarification alert was posted partially because I needed to make sure people understand that my rocking and awesomely cool mom is NOT Meg On the Bus' mom...my mom would never play bridge. Ever. That is so not her. My mom and bridge would go together about as well as the Matanuska Glacier and Austin, TX in summer. Just so you know.
Oops! You know, in the back of my mind, I thought I was a bit older than you (1975) and that the writing didn't sound like your style. I guess I should have noticed the pic and known better LOL.
Meg ~
I love vintage cookbooks. I have the same Red/Pie-Cover Betty Crocker book. Love it! :-) Sorry about your bad work schedule, your blog posts will be missed!!!!
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