Retro Ruth's Mid-Century Menu experiment: Ham Banana Casserole; Photo courtesy of NoPatternRequired.com
As you know, I’m trying to encourage people to eat wholesome mid-century foods because I believe it is a healthier option all around.
But not all mid-century food is edible…and it might even be considered chemical warfare. Fortunately, we have a guide who will show us the way…
I first encountered Retro Ruth’s wonderful sense of humor on Twitter. And then I had a “duh!” moment and realized that the “No Pattern Required” blog that I had been enjoying was written by the very same Retro Ruth from Twitter!
While I’ve been running around collecting vintage cookbooks for serious cooking, Ruth has managed to unearth the quirkiest cookbooks that cause us to ponder “What WERE they thinking???” Luckily for us, Ruth has a long suffering husband who is willing to be the guinea pig for Ruth’s weekly Mid-Century Menu experiment where she tries out some of the more questionable recipes. This week’s experiment was a ham-banana casserole (smothered in mustard).
There was a dark side to mid-century cooking and Retro Ruth does a fabulous job of bringing it to light so that the rest of us can cook safely.
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I’m no expert, but as we have been pursuing this subject of the mid-century life, I have come to think that the excesses of today really have their roots in that timeframe. My mother argued that the pure sugar of candy was not good for you, so eat cookies instead, which have eggs and flour to benefit you. Store-bought cookies (by Nabisco, Sunshine, etc.) were standard snacks in my mother’s home, though we were also encouraged to eat fruits and vegetables.
You do sorta wonder how some of these recipes got past the taste test. Surely there must have been a taste test.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Nicole St-Pierre, Julie-Ann McFann. Julie-Ann McFann said: New on Betty Crocker & Me: I gush about @RetroRuth's Mid-Century Menu http://bit.ly/bPAujc [...]