Vacation time with Doubles
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| Time for a nap! |
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| "Why I nap?" |
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| Mad-Men era "cooking" or what to eat in between cigarettes (many, many references to ashtrays in this book--what a sign of the times!) |
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| Ms. Bracken--the Hipster Mom of her day? |
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| More Vacation Time |
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| Cheese! |
posted by suzanne @ 11:46 AM
6 Comments:
That cook book was the basis for quick meal ideas for the family on a budget. Of course, I cut the fat and calories as much as I could. Health food, at that time, tasted lousy.
I guess we just notice the many references to ashtrays since the times have changed in that respect...a bit. Now people just smoke outdoors.
Please tell me you never made the Chinese Noodles + mushroom soup combo!!
Remember, those were the Mad Men days (1960!) I know YOU didn't smoke! That was from the party foods chapter, how to help your guests navigate around your home while carrying a drink, a cigarette and a plate of refrigerator biscuits with anchovies in the middle.
This book is still funny to me, Food was grease and gravy on white bread served to drunken folk who filled up on the house with cocktails so sweet you could die of something immediately - probably ulcers without fuss. Restaurant food was on the meat, potatoes side with loads of white bread. So Mrs. Bracken put in some real great ideas for cooking at home. Ha, ha. Also frozen food was awful-tasteless. Eating at a friends house, we got pasta with catsup and shoe leather round steak. But I also cooked from NY Times Mag, their cook books, James Beard, and
later, Julia Child. But for fast ideas for dinner - Mrs. Bracken came to the rescue. Mac and meat casserole, chicken with potatoes, carrots - putting cheese sauce over green stuff with tuna or salmon - fish sticks -from scratch. Do you remember this? Love, Ma
Matt used to have the mac and meat casserole, too. My favorite was the stuffed cabbage but that was so much work! People sure used to eat a lot of "White Sauce!"
Matt shared his favorite teen food: Fry up a pound of hamburger, then add a can of mushroom soup, then dump the whole mess over a pound of egg noodles. He could finish that up!
Matt and I also noted Ms. Bracken's use of fresh garlic, which was brave, given garlic at the time was really hit or miss, and usually old and moldy. We both noted we'd never seen good, fresh garlic until we were in our teens.
How times have changed -- just go in any grocery and note the varieties of mushrooms, bulk pasta and cereals, organic produce.....
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