Since I'm talking about teachers, I thought it was the perfect time to break out 1966's Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: Vegetables Edition Including Fruits. There is something about the awkwardness of "Vegetables Edition Including Fruits" that endears the book to me. "Vegetable and Fruit Edition" was apparently too simple a title?
A big part of me also wonders how many people really want home ec teacher recipes. I am not too interested in recreating most of my home ec experiences. One teacher had us make a "salad" out of cold french fries and mayonnaise and I could never figure out the point. It was disgusting AND unhealthy, so why bother?
Even the good stuff could be less appetizing in home ec. During one class we made a cheesecake, but there was barely enough time to finish making it and the lesson couldn't spill over into the next class, so we ended up eating it piping hot out of the oven. I love cheesecake, but it's a LOT better if it has time to cool. Cool, it's thick, creamy, sweet, and rich. Hot, it just feels greasy and slippery. The sweetness barely registers.
Now that I've looked over the cookbook, though, I wonder if home ec teachers actually had a secret agenda of giving students an aversion to things they shouldn't be ingesting anyway. I know high school teachers worry about students getting drunk, so how might they steer students away from alcohol? Here is one suggestion:
Prunes! Nothing will make alcohol seem less sexy than fermenting grandma's cure for constipation.
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