Well, they are creations involving chicken, anyway...

Chicken Delicious Creations (Favorite Brand Name Recipes) is from 1994, but it showed up in my collection with some other older stuff, so it's making an appearance here despite its relatively recent publication date.

This is one of those cookbooks that tries to include recipes from various cultures, but doesn't try very hard because it's got to include whatever brand names it's trying to sell. The Chicken and Shrimp Gumbo, for instance, looks more like a succotash with extra veggies and proteins dumped in than an actual gumbo.

No roux for thickening. No holy trinity-- just the green peppers. Plenty of canned Del Monte vegetables, though.

When I saw a whole can of Carnation evaporated milk went into the recipe for Chicken with Snow Peas and Walnuts, I told myself that maybe the recipe developers weren't trying for a Chinese-ish item (even though that's what the inclusion of snow peas generally meant back then).

But then I saw the picture-- complete with chopsticks and rice noodles. I guess we're just ignoring that actual Chinese dishes don't use much in the way of dairy so Carnation can move some product.

There's also yet another reminder that back in the day, "risotto" mostly just meant that rice was involved somehow (at least, that's what it meant when the term was used in an American cookbook).

I think if you promised risotto and then actually served instant brown rice cooked with chicken, onion, horseradish, sugar, black beans, and bell peppers, topped at the end with just a sprinkle of Parmesan, diners today would have a hard time forcing their faces into a look of delight (and keeping their clenched fists hidden under the table, rather than swinging in your direction).

Of course, since this booklet is sponsored by both Dole and Del Monte, there are so many chicken and pineapple recipes. When I saw "Sweet and" in the title for this one, I expected "Sweet and Sour," but this recipe actually foresaw the "swicy" craze of the future.

Not that any of our current sweet-and-spicy foods are likely to include canned pineapple, canned green beans, and crushed red pepper flakes, though. (Plus, this still includes sweet and sour sauce, so it's not like my initial guess was wrong.)

The weirdest pineapple recipe, though, might be the one for Hawaiian Chicken Salad. Not because it combines the chicken with pineapple, apple, celery, onion, green pepper, and mayonnaise. Not because it is served hot.

But because it is topped with a coating of buttered (or margarined) Honey Almond Delight cereal before being baked (or microwaved, in case this wasn't sufficiently weird already).

I hope the book's original owner didn't consider these brands to be favorites before they acquired this collection, because it seems like the recipes could have ruined that affinity pretty quickly. I'd certainly think differently of Honey Almond Delight if hot chicken salad came to mind every time I saw it.