Entertaining? Let's entertain the idea...

People are getting their vaccinations! (Or at least hoping they can get vaccinated soon.) We all know what that means. After a year of blissful peace and a good excuse not to feel pressured into being sociable, it's time for some entertaining.

Better Homes and Gardens is prepared with Recipes for Entertaining (1972). I love how orangey-yellow this cover is! From the yellow octagonal plates to the orange daisies and crinkle-cut carrots to the cheese ball and curry-salad-filled tomato tidbits, this plays into my secret conviction that the 1970s were entirely rust-colored.

And since most people who are not me will probably think that the return of social gatherings is sweet, here's an unexpectedly sweet menu for them. We'll start out with that genre that I can't stand, but it must be beloved since it comes up so often: sweet meat.

Fruit-Stuffed Pork Crown is really fruit stuffed: apple, raisins, orange, and a full pound of cranberry sauce (plus a little brown sugar to make sure it's all very sweet). 

Then we'll need a nice salad.

It might look like dessert, what with those shimmery red Jell-O layers.

And it might sound a lot like a crustless cherry cheesecake, what with all the cream cheese, dessert topping, and canned cherry pie filling, but it's a salad! You can tell because it's sitting on lettuce in the picture.

Okay, let's get serious and add a real vegetable. How about some asparagus for spring?

Asparagus, hard-cooked eggs, hollandaise, a hint of lemon. Asparagus Divan sounds so much like what I'd expect that I almost missed that "special" ingredient. Yep, this calls for frozen whipped dessert topping! We've all wanted to drown our asparagus in Cool Whip, right?

Okay-- I've had about as many sweets as I can handle, so let's find a bread recipe that isn't overly cloying to round out this menu.

If you thought I was trying to fake you out and the bread would be sweet too-- Ha! I was serious for a change. The little bit of sugar in here is to be expected in a yeast bread. Yeasties need something to eat! I just couldn't resist posting a bread recipe that calls for using a mixer to beat a full can of condensed cream of potato soup into bread starter. I just can't resist cans of cream-of-something soup in unlikely places.

Now, do all these multi-serving recipes have you pumped for gatherings again?

I am as thrilled as the woman in the upper left of this picture. 

"If I have to listen to one more minute of this fascinating monologue about how you used the last year to brush up on your French skills and learn to play the violin, so help me god, I will break into your pantry and tear the labels off your entire collection of canned goods!"

Here's hoping the rest of you are better at enduring small talk as it comes creeping back into our lives.