Green beans to round out the old year in style

Not sure what to do with those holiday leftovers? Maybe looking for something unusual to star in the new year's buffet? Well, the Blue Lake pole green beans mascot that is definitely not a rip-off of Mr. Peanut is here from the November 1968 Family Circle to offer some advice.

The key to glamorizing that sandwich of leftover turkey is easy!

Pile canned green beans on top of it! It will be a Bean Dandy! (And throw some Parkay Margarine, Salad Secret Dressing, and Kraft Sharp Natural Cheddar on too, since Kraft apparently owns all the brands and wants all your money.)

If you want a sophisticated salad for the buffet, but think Caesar has been overplayed, well, I'll bet you can guess what our tuxedo-ed friend would recommend.

Yep! Dump a can of green beans on it.

And try Kraft Italian dressing with a raw egg in it as your topper, since apparently Kraft didn't make a Caesar dressing in 1968.

But if you want a really show-stopping salad for the New Years' buffet, one that really reinforces the 1960s feel, you know what you need.

A jellied salad! At least this one doesn't start with lemon or lime Jell-O.

It's just plain gelatin thickening up the cottage cheese/ Miracle Whip/ milk/ parsley/ onion mixture, with a bunch of canned green beans and other veggies marinated in French dressing (Yep, Kraft worked in TWO dressings!) dumped in the middle. It does look interesting, shimmering softly in the waning light of the old year, and if your guests are wise, they will treat it as an inedible centerpiece.

I guess Mr. Green Bean in a Top Hat would still approve of leaving it as a centerpiece, as long as you'd shelled out the money for the green beans and salad dressing. It would be sad to ring in the new year with a disappointed anthropomorphic vegetable.