I got tired of using other stuff I found on the internet. Plus, I take pride in not just re-hashing what you can find elsewhere.
So I found some antique shops, bookstores, yard sales, you get the idea. I flipped through old cookbooks. I gave the charitable associations a pass: we know 90% of the recipes in those are horrible and people ONLY buy them to support said organization. If it was 1990 or later, I skipped it.
My first find was poor old Betty Crocker’s 1983 Christmas Cookbook. There a few bad ones, but I was going to give them a pass- after all, it’s Betty Crocker!– until I saw the “Holiday Salad” in all its horrible glory. (And the ham loaf with tomato soup in it…I’ll get to that in a couple of weeks).
Why is this holiday salad so horrible? It’s not the molded salad- we know people spent two decades making those things. It’s not the first ingredients: lime jello, crushed pineapple, cream cheese, whipping cream…we actually have a pretty good base there. Why couldn’t they stop there?
Nope, they had to add celery and mayonnaise! You could substitute salad dressing for the mayo…because French dressing would be better. I think not.
AND they recommended the lettuce “ruffle” to dress up the plate. I must stop now.
If you got a laugh out of this, feel free to hop on over to the Insane Vintage Recipes section or the Sexist Vintage Ads.
Or drop by next Thursday!
And if any of you are insane enough to want to make it….
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