Thursday, February 12, 2009

Vintage Valentine's Day Recipes


This photo, while partly off the page, if from Better Homes and gardens Birthdays and Family Celebrations, from 1963.
This is a cute and tasty sounding salad, but I was a bit concerned with the description of the sauce in the middle:
Fluffy Pink Mayonnaise: Whip 1/2 cup whipping cream; fold in 1 cup of mayonnaise. Fold in a drop or so of red food coloring to tint a delicate pink. Amy's note: Go easy on that item, or you'll be sampling something that's not a delicate shade of pink - Pepto Bismol!
The salad is not so bad:
3 1/2 cups fruit cocktail
1 package lemon-flavored gelatin
1 cup hot water
1/4 cup maraschino-cherry syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 3 oz. packages cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 1/2 cups tiny marshmallows
1/4 cup quartered maraschino cherries
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
Few drops red food coloring
Drain fruit cocktail, reserving 1 cup syrup. Dissolve gelatin in hot water; add reserved fruit-cocktail syrup, maraschino-cherry syrup, and lemon juice. Chill till partially set. Soften cream cheese; add mayonnaise and beat till smooth. Add to gelatin mixture, mixing well. Stir in fruit cocktail, marshmallows, and cherries. Fold in whipped cream. Tint pink with red food coloring. Pour into individual heart molds. (of course everyone has these in their pantry, right?)
Freeze salad several hours or overnight. Unmold atop canned pineapple rings. If desired, top with Gelatin Heart Cutouts. Makes 12 large or 18 small servings.
I don't see the word 'atop' much in modern publications now, unless of course I'm reading romance novels. Maybe I've been looking at too many weird recipes lately because this doesn't sound too bad, pink mayonnaise aside. What did they use that pink mayonnaise for, I wonder.
I'm reviewing Meg Cabot/Mia Thermopolis' Ransom My Heart and it's pretty fun. I wonder if she'll/they'll do more of these.

2 comments:

Home Deconomics said...

*looks sheepish* I have individual heart molds.

All of the Valentine recipes make me want to bake! And put frosting on something! I think I'm done with Jello for this month tho :)

Amy said...

We will have to list out our molds some time and compare! Go for it - and post what you make. I assume you are not frosting meats like some of these books, right? :)