Dairy goes modern!

I'm going modern today! 

Not too modern, though. If the cover of Modern Approaches to Everyday Cooking looks like it's straight from 1966, that's because it is from 1966. And as the the cheese-stuffed peppers and piles of whipped cream on various desserts hint, this book is from the American Dairy Association. 

I'm going to be uncharacteristically social today and have a party. I'll start out with a cheesy appetizer.

More specifically, an Appetizer Cheesecake! A savory cheesecake probably sounds weird since most of us are used to dessert-y cheesecakes. This actually looks pretty similar to a cheese ball though-- what with all the shredded cheese, seasonings, and finely-chopped veggies. It just uses sour cream instead of the usual cream cheese and puts it all on a crushed cracker crust rather than rolling the mixture in chopped nuts.

I think I'll put a couple salads on the buffet, since we had such a heavy appetizer. (Nothing like starting a meal with cheesecake, right?) Maybe something with seafood...

Baked Salad of the Sea combines the expected canned seafoods with celery, Swiss cheese, crushed pineapple, and sour cream before dumping the whole shebang into avocado halves and-- as the title suggests-- baking it. Once again, I'm left wondering whether this is one of those instances where cheese and seafood are supposedly A-OK together (Maybe the crushed pineapple or hot avocado make the combination okay?) or whether this is an instance where the judges on the cooking show I'm watching would act like putting seafood and cheese together is tantamount to scraping an unidentifiable mound of festering goo off the sidewalk and suggesting they should eat it.

For those not up to eating canned seafood and pineapple on hot avocado halves, I could offer Chicken Almond Mousse Salad. 

This has the distinction of combining lime gelatin with chicken stock before blending in the chicken, celery, almonds, and cucumber and folding in some whipped cream. Nothing quite like a slightly jiggly, pale green block of chicken to whet the old appetite...

We need something to go with the salads... Maybe a nice Cheese Buffet Sandwich. 

This one goes all-in on the protein, with tuna, ham, bacon, and eggs in addition to the titular cheese. My favorite thing about this, though, is that it's touted as a buffet sandwich. The construction-- slices of bread topped with tuna, onion, lettuce, cheese dressing, more bread, ham, tomato, bacon, a generous pour of more dressing, plus egg and olive garnish-- doesn't seem like it would work so well on a buffet. The first person to try to transfer one of those towering piles of ingredients coated in goop would probably end up demolishing at least several sandwiches in the attempt. Before long, the sandwich platter would look like a mucous-based alien in a monster movie disintegrating into a pile of goo after the heroes figured out that it could be defeated with, say, a few good splashes of vinegar.

Maybe I should go for something a little easier to pick up individually for dessert: Rice Cakes.

These aren't your 1980s styrofoam-based snacks! It's more like rice pudding bound with eggs and cooked as a patty. There's barely any sweetener, so better leave out a LOT of sweetened strawberries to go with them, or the guests may not realize the cakes are supposed to be dessert.

Have to admit that I'm not too tempted to throw a dairy party now, but it's more because of my aversion to crowds than anything else. While I like to imagine I'm not that susceptible to suggestion, I also have to admit that this post makes me want a baked potato with a mound of sour cream and cheese. So maybe I'll have a dairy "party" for one. Don't tell anybody. 

The March chapter of "Cooking by the Calendar" is more than ready for spring

Happy March! The new month means it is time, once again, to check in on Cooking by the Calendar (edited by Marilyn Hansen, 1978). The March chapter begins by claiming that "When the season changes, our mood changes, too, and the versatility of the egg appeals to our subtle leaning toward lighter foods." I would highlight the "subtle" in that sentence, as the chapter begins  with a few tables suggesting combinations for egg-based dishes, including this one on quiches. 

I'm not sure how "light" I would consider copious amounts of eggs, cheese, and often meat in a pastry crust, but at least if I put aside my unreasonable levels of hatred for mustard, nothing in this lineup sounds egregious. A green bean quiche with basil, almonds, and cheddar would probably be pretty good. (And maybe even better with broccoli or Brussels sprouts subbed in for the green beans!)

March is also the earliest month that might include Easter or Passover, so the book has a few recipes for each holiday. (It's easy to note the recipes and use them later if the holidays are later-- as they are this year-- but no good if the recipes are posted in April and the holidays were early!) Since lamb cakes are so iconic, I picked out that recipe. 

Hopefully, this is a really sturdy cake, or the head might fall off. No amount of ribbon tied around the neck is likely to fix that. (I think I'd go for chocolate rather than this plain old vanilla, though. Always been a bit of a black sheep myself.) 

Appropriately for Easter (or at least near-Easter), March's vegetable is carrots. Apparently, baking bananas with various other semi-random foodstuffs was still a thing in 1978, so here's the recipe for Glazed Carrots and Bananas.

At least it sounds better than baked ham and bananas in cheese sauce! 

Here's hoping that March ends up being better than a headless lamb cake, but the way things have been going lately, I wouldn't count on it...