Some little extras from Beaver Dam

Mountain Cooking in Beaver Dam (Ladies Auxiliary of Beaver Dam Volunteer Fire Department in Watauga County, North Carolina, ca. 1979) came not just with a history of the volunteer fire department, but also with some extra pages from the previous owner. I was initially a little confused about why the Chablis Apartments Newsletter from October/ November 1997 was stuffed in between pages 38 and 39. Who really needs to hold on to such exciting reminders as "Please remember to throw your trash INSIDE the dumpsters!!" or "Please remember that everyone can park up to 2 vehicles in regular parking, but visitors must park in the assigned visitor areas"? Then I saw that the other side of the sheet had some very '90s recipes, including Stuffed Chicken Breasts made with instant rice.

I love the Pac-Man-Meets-Ritz-Cracker design under the instructions on this one. (You can also see the very big "Trash Removal" headline showing through from the back of the page, so you know I wasn't joking about all the boring reminders on the other side.)

There's also a Patchwork Veggie Pizza.

I'm not sure what makes the "pizza" (really just veggies plunked down on a crescent roll sheet spread with a creamy salad dressing mixture) recipe qualify as using "less sugar, salt and fat" when the stuffed chicken breasts seem like they could just as easily fit that same designation. My guess is that the tiny serving size makes the "pizza" seem like it's diet food.

And speaking of diet food, the far more horrifying inclusion in this book was nestled between pages 24 and 25: Dr. Tarnower's Super Diet. The claim that dieters could "Lose up to 20 lbs. in 14 days" should be a huge red flag.

I'd say the plan seems kind of dangerous, seeing how little food this provides every day, but I'm not sure too many people would be able to stick to it for two solid weeks anyway. The same daily breakfast of grapefruit and a slice of toasted protein bread would get really old, really fast. (I'm sick of it just contemplating it!) Then there's an extravagant lunch of things like assorted cheese slices, spinach, and one slice of dry protein toast, or as much fruit salad as you can handle. Finish the day with a dinner like two lamb chops with celery, cucumbers, and tomatoes or cold chicken with tomatoes and grapefruit and you'll be ready to eat the lead paint off the walls for dessert.

Luckily, it seems like whoever previously owned this cookbook set aside the diet advice pretty quickly and mostly used the back of the sheet to jot down addresses and phone numbers. At least the extra paper was useful! It served as an impromptu address book then and as a sad/ weird/ funny cultural artifact now....