Happy Wednesday to all, and merry Christmas if you celebrate! Today, we'll party by looking at Christmas Recipes (Consumers Power Company, 1969).
I love the image of Santa cooking on his avocado-green stovetop. He's fancy, too, with the cutting-edge-for-1969 microwave above the range. I'm kind of worried that he might have blood splatter on the oven doors (both conventional and microwave). Maybe he was trying to inspire the holiday slasher movies that were still a few years away? Santa really was cutting-edge!
Okay, enough with the Santa slander... (I won't even mention his uncomfortable-looking and unsafe stirring method or the odd choice to put a huge, hot appliance in the middle of the room rather than, say, against a wall.) Let's look at some of the promised Christmas recipes. I was shocked to see that this small booklet (quite possibly distributed for free) from the late 1960s had color photos, so we're going to enjoy the meal recommended in those photos.
We'll start out with the beverage, so heavenly it's apparently attended by an angel.
The yellow hue may suggest this is egg nog, but it's not! (The clump of orange rind floating in the middle is a clue to its identity...)
It's Citrus Punch with Frozen Orange Mold! (The rind is supposed to be a flower.) This concoction is basically fancied up orange-grapefruit juice. I wasn't sure what the connection to Christmas was, but maybe the angel is there to show the juice is kind of the same color as her hair? So, Christmas!
In any case, the main spread looks far more Christmassy.
On the left, we have Spicy Turkey Roll! It's a reminder that "spicy" used to mean something very different. Now, of course, it usually means heat from peppers, like habanero or jalapeno.
Then, it meant that the cook used at least one flavoring agent in addition to salt and pepper. In this case, that's barbecue sauce thinned out with wine or grape juice. So, sweet turkey!
The Dilly Beans in the middle look so cute with their pimento poinsettia!
They consist, rather unsurprisingly, mostly of green beans and dill seed, but alliums, parsley, lemon, and additional pimento brighten them up for the holiday table.
The Curried Fruit, as far as I am concerned, looks like a stomach ache waiting to happen.
Cans and cans of fruit (likely in heavy syrup if we're talking 1969!), plus 3/4-cup of additional brown sugar and a swad of red and green maraschino cherries to make it Christmassy... Instead of admitting it's just a casserole dish full of sugar, though, throw in a bit of curry powder and call it a side. That way, there's still room for a nice dessert the elves can use to warm up their hands.
At least, I think that is what's supposed to be going on in this picture. The elves see the flames in the middle of the pie and see a good opportunity to get their tiny hands warmer. Either that, or the red elf is trying not to barf on the mincemeat. It's kind of hard to tell what elves are up to.
Setting the Cranberry Mincemeat Pie aflame is a memorable way to end a meal... Even more so if it's accompanied by roast elf. (It's helpful to add a little savory to round out all the sweets in this meal.)
In any case, I hope you get to have something you love to eat today! I'll be enjoying "Pistachio Salad" with a family that readily admits that yes, it is actually a dessert.
So much disgusting sweetness. A punch bowl full of juice with a clump of honey on the bottom because it doesn't dissolve well in cold liquids. Then you need a rotisserie to cook a prepared turkey roll with added sugar slathered on it. Who even has a home rotisserie? The rest of the stuff seems pretty standard. Green beans with an overly complicated preparation, fruit trying to masquerade as a side dish, and a pie with a questionable finishing touch.
ReplyDeleteYes-- a lot of old holiday menus seem to be an excuse to eat a pound of sugar and call it a meal.
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