Two of the three have "happiness" right in the titles, perhaps in the hope that telling people the meal will make them happy will have a placebo effect.
The seven happinesses of 7-Happiness Beef and Rice are actually enumerated, though my favorite is probably the realistic assessment that "Very young people and very old people like it, and the others don't mind it so much." Yes, "don't mind it so much" is the most you can hope for with this mix of rice, beef (whatever amount the family might have), onions, olives, tomato juice, and if you're lucky, cheese. That sounds about right.
Next, coming in at almost 43% less happy, is 4-Happiness Spaghetti.
It's most suitable for people like "little kids, football players, and guests who had a third martini" and its super-power is sitting indefinitely in a 200-degree oven "without being noticeably affected." Well, I guess the canned spaghetti ain't getting any mushier, and the canned peas are not going to turn any more army green (or smell any less like a footlocker).
Bracken goes all-out with her international offering, blaming two nations at once with Italian Chop Suey/ Chinese Macaroni:
I hate to say it, but this looks more genuinely Chinese-adjacent than a lot of the "Chinese" casserole recipes I see, simply by virtue of its not being covered in cream-of-something soup and/or a blanket of cheese. I'm not really saying ground beef with veggies, tomato paste, and soy sauce over shell macaroni is particularly Chinese, but, well, it's not particularly NOT Chinese either, compared to its competition.
And if the rigors of March coupled with all this ground beef get readers frustrated, Bracken suggests Aggression Cookies for spring, unlike the community cookbook that insisted they are a good pre-Christmas project.
In any case, I'm going outside to yell at March to get a move on already! I've already had my fill of high wind and precipitation. "Happy" March, everyone....
There is no happiness in Italian chop suey (not that there's really much happiness in the other recipes either).
ReplyDeleteHappiness in much of anything during March is a stretch.
DeleteHer cook book is so strange to me. The book is all about how to make "mediocre" food at best! How did it get published ?!?
ReplyDeleteIt's for people who hate to cook at a time when most women were expected to cook regardless of talent or interest. There was a pretty big audience of women who just wanted to get the cooking over with, and knowing that something could be cheap, easy, and relatively fast was enough to sell them. As long as the food was passable, it would be fine. (Plus, a bit part of Bracken's appeal is her sense of humor about it all. She seemed more realistic and less idealistic than a lot of the relentlessly optimistic cookbooks that imagined women had no interests other than cooking and caring for families. It was kind of freeing to see that other women found that kind of "happy homemaker" writing to feel oppressive.)
DeleteAt least, that's what I imagine. I'm not old enough to remember!
DeleteThat makes sense to me. Thanks Poppy!
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