Attempting to be high-minded

It's May! Birds are yelling at each other outside my bedroom window every morning just to make sure I am up, even when I don't have to be. Plants are more quietly sprouting, or leafing, or flowering, or doing whatever any particular type of plant is supposed to do at this time of year..

Since the birds are more annoying, I'm tempted to reach for the Good Housekeeping's Cook Books (1958) "Poultry & Game" booklet, but to atone for my melon snuff film post, I will be high-minded this week and go with the "Book of Vegetables" instead.

Not that the "Book of Vegetables" makes it easy to be high-minded...

... as GH appears not to have gotten the racial sensitivity memo. (To be fair, I'm pretty sure it was not in wide circulation in 1958.) It's not bad enough to call this recipe "Squaw Corn," but the picture also has to feature the native woman carrying a feather-bedecked baby on her back.

I'm not quite convinced that sliced bacon, light cream, and canned cream-style [sweet] corn were authentic to the native American experience, either.

But other sections try harder to keep it classy.

What kinds of recipes might be tempting to someone who wears a suit, a hat, and white gloves to the grocery store?

Perhaps something like this?

And what is "Kidney-Bean Sophisticate"? Canned kidney beans with onion, rosemary, and red wine. (Sounds more like a waste of wine to me, but at least it only wastes a quarter cup.)

If beans need to have a proper name to be truly sophisticated, though, then it is better to go with these:

Good old John J. Limas! The crumbled Roquefort gives frozen limas with condensed consomme and bread crumbs that certain je ne sais quoi that makes you wonder, "Seriously, why didn't I just enjoy this cheese with the wine from the other recipe?"

Have a sophisticated weekend!