RetroLife

Green Pea Salad

I got this recipe out of an Elvis cookbook and made it as a side for a meatloaf dinner with Micki.

It was easy to make and perfectly edible in a picnic-y sort of way, although we both decided that improvements could be made. There seem to be distinct qualities and ingredients in 50's food that don't fly so well with contemporary diners. Outside the ubiquitous gelatine of 50's recipes that now seems so weird and repellant (no gelatine in this recipe, though!), there is a profligate use of pimentos that also tends to not go over well. Mayonnaise is also abused. So my contemporizing of this recipe to make it more edible are as follows:

1 ten oz. package frozen small green peas
2 tablespoons minced onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chedder cheese cut into small cubes
2 hard boiled eggs chopped
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. real bacon bits 1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
lettuce leaves

Basically, I just reduced the amount of cheese, cut the mayo in half, left the pimento out entirely and added bacon bits for extra flavor. Yum!

Keep Your Conversation Cheerful

From the Homemaker's Encyclopedia 1952:

Is it hot in here or is it just them? The sex vibe in this picture is off the hook. That saucy little minx is giving that big galoot the look of love and how. I'll bet he's wearing sock garters. Steamy!

Tact

From The Homemaker's Encylopedia "Etiquette for Everyone" 1952.

...especially when someone is flogging your crotch with a flower bouquet!

Leopard dress coat

I bought this retro repro coat by Stop Staring about a year ago from MyBabyJo.com to have something showy to wear over my dresses at Viva Las Vegas. Fortunately, it's proven to be a good coat for many occasions. Mind you, if the temperature drops below 40 degrees, you're still going to freeze your ass off in this coat (even as you look divine). It's really a good late-fall, early-spring coat. With the belted waist, it has a nice 40's/50's elegance with dresses, but not so much so with pants...it's definitely a dressy coat. At $150, it's not super-expensive, but not a bargain, either. Still, it's worth it if you need a coat that looks as good as what's under it.

Space-Age Doggie Bed

This handmade doggie bed in space-age modern print fabric is available from PunkRockPets on Etsy for $35.

Jell-o Rainbow Cake -- 1962

From the cookbook "Joys of Jell-o" 1962

Last summer I was invited to a pot luck party whose theme was that everybody had to bring something that started with the letter "J." Naturally, my first instinct was to go with Jell-o. Since I wanted people to actually eat what I made, I decided to go with a recipe that looked non-threatening and pretty: the Jello Rainbow Cake.

The only ingredients in this "cake" are multiple flavors of Jell-o and whipped cream (see full recipe), but it was still rather difficult and time-consuming to make. The most interesting thing I learned from this recipe was the concept of whipped jell-o. The trick is to take the jell-o when it's in it's not-quite-liquid/not-quite-solid state and beat it with an electric mixer until it whips up into a light, fluffy froth. When it solidifies, it is a new, spongier jell-o experience. This cake is composed of layers of whipped jell-o carefully poured into a wax-paper cylinder, left to solidify and then "iced" with whipped cream. Not wanting to press my luck, I made mine four layers instead of the recommended five. While I managed to pull the recipe off, my cake didn't look much like the cake in the picture.

The biggest warning I can give to anyone who attempts this recipe is this: DO NOT TRY TO TRANSPORT IT! This is a stay-at-home dessert. I only had to walk the cake three blocks to the pot-luck, but it was jiggling like crazy the whole way and the heat melted the whipped cream until it was falling off in blobs on my shoes. I managed to get it there in one piece, but it was a little worse for wear.

On the bright side, everyone ate it and seemed to like it. Some people even commented that the whipped jell-o tasted different and compared it to Sweetarts. I'm sure this was just an illusion created by the difference in texture, but the novelty of whipped jell-o seemed to be enjoyed.

CB2 Comma Plates

These cute little retro looking stoneware snack dishes are available from CB2 (Crate and Barrel's more modern-style spin-off store) for a paltry $1.95.

Blue Heaven dishware by Royal China

I've been stocking my cabinets with vintage dishes for years, and always recommend Blue Heaven to anyone who wants usable retro-modern style dishes at affordable prices. This pattern came out in the sixties and was sold in inexpensive sets at grocery stores. It would seem there's a lot of it still around since there's always a long list of it on ebay with most basic items easily had for low prices. Certain items are rarer or more sought after, and can take longer to get (I had to do ebay battles for over a month to get a teapot), but still sell for prices that won't break the bank. My particular favorite Blue Heaven pieces are the little tea/coffee cups and glassware:

'59 cadillac loveseat

Okay, admittedly this item is less a genuine retro item and more a denizen of the land of tacky neo-retro kitsch populated by ceramic Betty Boops and plastic Elvis clocks, but I still thought it was kind of neato.

I actually looked up this item because of "Seinfeld." While watching the episode where Kramer reverses his peephole, I was impressed by Kramer's sofa, which is much like the one above. A quick internet search for "car sofa" turned up all colors shapes and sizes.

There are lots of them on ebay for the somewhat steep price of $1500-2500. On the site EarlStation.com they have a broader array of retro car-inspired furnishings, including bars, clocks and chairs.

Avocado Pie -- 1962

From the cookbook "Joys of Jello" 1962

This pie (see full recipe) is described in the cookbook as "A pie with flair--deliciously combining avocado, pineapple and cheese." While one acquaintence of mine said "that's sounds like one of the most disgusting things I've ever heard," I thought it was so crazy it just might work. Although this cookbook contained much odder fare like "ring around the tuna" and "chicken mousse," The avocado pie was the one I had to try.

The pie was fairly easy to make although I made the mistake of trying to use a not-quite-ripe avocado, so the avocado mashing was more strenuous than it should have been. The pie came out well nonetheless and looked like a retro delight. As for the taste, I thought it was actually pretty good. The flavor was dominated by the lime jello and pineapple, so the avocado and cream cheese mostly just added texture. For some reason, though, I COULD NOT GET ANY OTHER PERSON TO TASTE IT! Maybe they were twice shy after the Tuna Delight Salad Mold incident, but every person who came to my house for the next three days was enthusiastically offered avocado pie and everyone turned it down. So even though this pie was actually fairly interesting and enjoyable, I'll probably never make it again because I'll be eating it alone.