Carrot Cups

I'm always looking for new, interesting ways to cook veggies. This caught my eye. I don't know why.

 This recipe is from Better Cooking and Baking published in 1960. Looks easy enough.

The ingredients look a little scary all out next to each other...

 The mixture doesn't look too bad. Kinda.

 They look great in my custard cups! (I love my custard cups!)

 They actually baked up really nicely! I've never baked anything in a pan with water and I was a bit nervous. I don't know why I thought it would boil over and ruin everything.

 Still looking good!

 Still all good!

Taste is bad! Bad! Bad! These were awful! I was very disappointed. All these normal, delicious ingredients came together to form a terrible, but pretty, side dish. I managed to gag down a couple of bites before tossing the rest of it in the trash. I felt sorry for the carrots. They deserved to be baked in a cake.

My Rating: So bad I have nightmares.

Brown and Whites

My office was complaining about the lack of cookies so I caved in. 

This great pamphlet was published in 1964 in celebration of of the Rawleigh Company's 75th anniversary.

One issue with using cookbooks put out by companies is that you cannot always find all the ingredients. I could not find the cocoa mix so I used a hot chocolate mix I had lying around.

 All other ingredients were on hand. Looks like a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.

 The batter was very thick and difficult to mix in the nuts and chocolate. I managed somehow.

 Aren't they cute?!

 Half the cookies were rolled in powdered sugar and the other half were rolled in the hot chocolate mix

 They looked really pretty all laid out.

 Chocolate cookie goodness!

All in all these were not bad cookies but I didn't think they were anything special. They were a very dense cookies and did not spread at all in the oven. I loved the idea of rolling the cookies in chocolate! The hot chocolate mix crisped up a bit on the hot cookies but, sadly, didn't add much to them.

My Rating: Just okay

Friends and Family Rating: "Yum!" "Why is there only one left?"

Pork Chop Suey

There is a ton of stories surrounding the creation of chop suey. They all agree that it is a "Chinese" dish created in the US but how and why and even if it is a variation of a traditional Chinese dish is all debated. Not that any of that matters when you are eating it. This dish is not seen much any more but it was very popular in the 1950's.

This recipe is from The Modern Family Cook Book by Meta Given published in 1953. Doesn't look too difficult.

 I had to search a bit to find the can of chop suey veggies. Sooo much celery! I like celery but...wow. And way too many onions. I had to cut it back to only one.

 Frying everything up together! Easy Peasy

 Just waiting on the sauce to thicken...

 Ta Da! Yum!

 This recipe was super easy and tasty (as long as you like celery). It is not very colorful. It's brown covered with brown sauce but don't let that fool you. It is good! I would definately add more vegetables, like carrots, next time. I wasn't certain what exactly was in canned chop suey veggies but it looks easy enough to gather the veggies on your own and skip the can.

My Rating: Tasty!

Colonial Innkeeper's Pie

It's called a pie but more like a cake...kind of...

 This book, published on 1959, is filled with great entertaining ideas! Not just food but party ideas. If this was the standard for house parties then I would fail every time!

 This recipe caught my attention because it's called a pie but there is no 'pie-like' filling. Strange. But it has chocolate.

 Simple ingredients! I used a mixture of pecans and walnuts since it did not specify.

 Yum...Chocolate sauce!

 This was the pie 'filling.' Still does not feel like a pie.

 Pouring the chocolate sauce on top was different. I still had no idea what this was going to turn into.

 Okay, with the nuts on top it looks similar to a pecan pie. I'm still feeling weird about that chocolate.

 I love the smell of baking!! It actually turned out beautiful looking and smells sooooo good. A nice crisp top with a little chocolate...don't know what happened to the rest of the chocolate.

The chocolate sunk to the bottom. So I have crunchy nuts followed by sweet cake then chocolate and then a pie crust. Strange.

 And so delicious!!

This definitely delivered on the  'unusual' but not on the 'rich.' I'm not complaining though! The filling formed a delicious cake while the chocolate settled to create a nice crust along the bottom. I had never heard of a pie like this but a co-worker remembered this pie from her childhood. Her family called it crazy pie. I will definitely be saving this recipe! It was incredibly easy to make but looks fancy.

My Rating: Keeper!

Friends and Family Rating: "Strange but delicious!"