Zombie Hearts

I'm not normally all that excited about Valentine's day. It makes a lot of perfectly nice people feel as if they're missing out on something. Plus there aren't nearly enough chainsaws in Valentine movies. (There are plenty of horror movies I can watch over and over, but My Bloody Valentine, while fine, is not such a classic.)

I happened across this picture in Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: New Holiday Cookbook (1974), though, and decided to make a Valentine's post:

If you thought these looked like meringue hearts, you were right. If you thought they were probably filled with a pink, berry-laden fluff and maybe some nice jam on top, you are only half right.

The filling is actually green because they're made with avocado! Top it with some red raspberry preserves, and you've got zombie hearts for Valentine's day. That is more my style.

I was especially surprised because I thought of avocado sweets as a  recent trend, but they were clearly around 40 years ago. Meringue zombie hearts weren't even the only avocado desserts in the Valentine's day section. There is also the little gem that is "Avocado Coeur a la Creme," a mix of pineapple juice, gelatin, avocados, cream cheese, cottage cheese, and cream poured in heart-shaped molds and topped with grenadine-marinated grapefruit.

Maybe the real surprise is finding red and green desserts that aren't in the Christmas section. Zombies have been known to wander.