Mix the chopped macaroni and vegetables and moisten with French dressing, flavouring with garlic if you like. Serve on a dish lined with lettuce leaves. Decorate with mayonnaise and minced pimento or chives.
with thoughts of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and Elizabeth David
frightened pears methinks
macaroni questioning
tell me what you eat _________________ "I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson
Can I ask, I guess this is a Devil's Advocate question, about the conditions and options in 1945 in that place ? Raw carrots. raw onions, someones carefully lovingly preserved pears, haricots verts. French dressing. I don't know if this is horrible or not..
Besides, let me submit this:
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=447
Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 456 Location: california
Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:37 pm Post subject:
Whew! Tough choice here. At first, I kept reading "peas" for "pears" in the first recipe and actually thought it sounded not unlike other pasta-vegetable concoctions I've seen even now. That "French dressing" is a bit suspicious, but...And then I realize it reads "pears" (I think my subconscious refused to recognize that word) and that pretty much changes everything, especially with the onions and garlic option.
HOWEVER...gingerpale weighed in...I don't know, guys. Eggs. White sauce. Potato chips (always a winner). Shrimp (canned, I'm sure). Tough to beat that combination.
This could end up being a really fun forum! By the way, old church fund-raising cookbooks are rich sources of such culinary delights. I'm off to do a bit of research in the ones on my bookshelf...
Joined: 17 Aug 2005 Posts: 307 Location: Far, far away
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:56 am Post subject:
gingerpale wrote:
Can I ask, I guess this is a Devil's Advocate question, about the conditions and options in 1945 in that place ? Raw carrots. raw onions, someones carefully lovingly preserved pears, haricots verts. French dressing. I don't know if this is horrible or not..
Besides, let me submit this:
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/recipes/view.cfm?id=447
Good point, gingerpale! What "French dressing" meant then, I hope, is vinaigrette as opposed to the sweet orange-red bottled stuff in the 60's and 70's.
Hard-boiled eggs added to just about anything other than salade nicoise (for some reason, okay) cause shudders, so I think you win. But I take Elizabeth David's salad and raise her: http://www.duggarfamily.com/recipes.html
a Tator Tot Casserole (scroll down) which I am guessing would be so much better with a little Vegemite!
Joined: 17 Aug 2005 Posts: 307 Location: Far, far away
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:00 am Post subject:
georgia wrote:
By the way, old church fund-raising cookbooks are rich sources of such culinary delights. I'm off to do a bit of research in the ones on my bookshelf...
Another place to look: internet postings of folk who have already done that research.
Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 296 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:51 am Post subject:
Elizabeth David's recipe is mild compared to some I've run across! As Georgia notes, church/synagogue group cookbooks and the like are goldmines of horrific recipes. To wit, my mother has an ORT cookbook from 1966 given to her by her sister which reads like the culinary equivalent of a Stephen King novel. I won't quote any recipes verbatim as I don't want to upset anyone's delicate sensibilities but suffice it to say that just about every single one contains at least one, and usually several, highly processed and/or outright fake ingredients. The one that really sticks in my mind is a lemonade pie which calls for lemonade concentrate, yellow food colouring, and alarming amounts of gelatin and margarine.
(In defense of my mom and aunt, both excellent cooks, I think the only recipe they've ever used from it is the latkes. It's pretty hard to inject evil ingredients into those...)
My my but many of these are uniformly horrific. But I give first prize for gumption to Deste for actually forcing us to gaze in disbelief at that flicker show! My god!!!!!!! And a special prize goes to georgia for not expanding on the "corn beef hash in aspic".. i may not sleep tonight..... _________________ Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!
No more war! kill, destroy, smash.... the ugly food!
( actually, I don't see what's wrong with pears in the macaroni salad - it's the onions I would take out.)
Joined: 18 Oct 2004 Posts: 1654 Location: Within view of Elliot Bay, The Olympics and every ship in the Sound
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:47 pm Post subject:
My husband's boss had us for dinner a while back and made us a family specialty. It was a giant casserole of a few chicken bits, cream, vast amounts of oleo, and canned cream of chicken soup. I had initially thought I could get away with only eating the chicken, but little did I know that there was not enough there to make a difference. I could have won an Oscar for my performance, but instead was given a photocopy of the horrific recipe the next day. Nice man, terrible recipe.
I wold tell you about my mother's recipe for "thighs surprise", but we had a ceremonial recipe burning after dinner was over. Oddly enough, our parents hated it as much as we did, and yet we didn't ditch it and order pizza. Waste not apparently.
I think my sister's mother in-law makes that tater tot casserole. Yech. _________________ "It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."
Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 456 Location: california
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:21 pm Post subject:
I think I know Erin's husband's boss:...
Some years ago, we were invited (with another couple, dear friends) to mutual friends' home for dinner. Usually, we dined out with these folks. This time, they entertained us. Dinner for 6 of us, including 3 large men, was a casserole of chicken bits (same chicken as Erin's casserole, apparently), some celery, a can of sliced water chestnuts, bound together with cream of chicken soup, topped with canned crispy "Chinese noodles". It was 1/2" deep in a 13 x 9 inch pan, approximately 1/2 cup per person. No salad. No bread. There may have been brownies for dessert; I'm not sure.
I'm reminded of the old joke...in reviewing a new restaurant, the critic noted, "The food was terrible, and there was so little of it!"
I try really, really hard to focus on the invitation and be grateful that people extend their hospitality. While great food is always appreciated, it's not always the main thing. But sometimes...we all have to give Oscar-worthy performances.
Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Posts: 296 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:25 am Post subject:
Simona, ORT is a Jewish education and vocational training organisation (I never understood the acronym, and having just looked it up, I now know why - it's Russian). I suppose the chapter my aunt belonged to must have put out the cookbook as a fundraiser, and as my mom's is a second edition, it must have been popular - which is great from a charity standpoint, but rather worrying from a culinary one!
Hi Rachel and thanks. I guessed it was the ORT I know, but the cookbook made me think it might be something else. We have lots of ORT vocational schools over here, so I'm familiar with the name. Some of them are highly regarded, some less . I do think they have also a cooking training department. I hope they do better now and the next booklet will have some "edible" recipes.
How was your transition from London back home? Do you miss Europe?
No more war, Latkes are deliciously fattening, but who cares...
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Last posts feed
Register
Log in
but suffice it to say that just about every single one contains at least one, and usually several, highly processed and/or outright fake ingredients. The one that really sticks in my mind is a lemonade pie which calls for lemonade concentrate, yellow food colouring, and alarming amounts of gelatin and margarine.