It’s important to me on this site to present vintage recipes as our parents and grandparents would have prepared them. The internet is already saturated with modernized versions of comfort food classics. I don’t want to be one more site projecting twenty-first century food trends onto vintage recipes. If I’m going to make a tuna……
Ingredient: garlic powder
Hawaiian Chicken with Ginger and Peach (California, 1996, adapted)
Hawaiian Chicken with Ginger and Peach is a chicken and rice dish with vaguely tropical sensibilities. If you’re expecting a traditional plate-lunch style chicken you’ll need to look elsewhere: this dish is more Nixon-era casserole than luau food. Pan-fried chicken breast is set atop a salty pilaf and seasoned lightly with ginger and coconut –……
Thai Chicken Pizza alla Shandi (Oregon, 2006, adapted)
Thai Chicken Pizza alla Shandi is a protein-heavy, vaguely Asian, sweet and sticky weeknight pizza. The recipe comes to my by way of Recipes from the Heart, a 2006 community cookbook from the church congregation my family attended. The recipe was submitted by a woman who has since moved and with whom our family was……
Chinese Braised Pork and Spinach (adapted from Myra Waldo’s Chinese Cookbook, 1968)
Chinese Braised Pork and Spinach is an American-style Chinese dish with a strong mid-century vibe. Like many of the recipes in Myra Waldo’s Chinese Cookbook (1968), what makes this dish “Chinese” is a blend of soy sauce, sherry, and honey that add a subtle Asian flair to an otherwise run-of-the-mill pork roast. I say this……
Rolled Lamb Breast, Sous Vide
Lamb consumption in the United States is on a decades long decline, with the average American consuming just a single pound per year. Now my family members probably average a pound of lamb per month, and I imagine that many of my Middle Eastern and Indian neighbors do the same. When Americans do eat lamb……
Macaroni with Yogurt Sauce (California, 1990s, adapted)
I’ve been cooking long enough that I can figure out what a recipe’s going to taste like just from reading the ingredient list. There’s not a lot new under the sun, and the community cookbooks that I frequently cook from aren’t exactly known for their innovative cuisine. There’s an awful lot of repetition, even within……
Chicken Pistachio Pasta Salad (California, 2006, adapted)
Chicken Pistachio Pasta Salad is a hearty entrée salad perfect for a warm summer evening. This recipe comes to me by way of a community cookbook from the Mother Teresa Maternity Home in Placerville, CA, which serves as both a women’s shelter and a temporary home for pregnant women. Unlike most community cookbooks, this one……
Clever Pizzaiola Meatball Subs (adapted from Cooking with Regis & Kathie Lee, 1993)
Clever Pizzaiola Meatball Subs are a quick and easy kid-friendly meal, adapted from the 1993 cookbook Cooking with Regis & Kathie Lee. The “clever” in the title refers not to the ingenuity of the recipe – this one is actually pretty straightforward – but to the recipe’s original authors: the Clever Cleaver Brothers. I have……
Noisettes de Porc aux Pruneaux (Oregon, 1974, adapted)
Noisettes de Porc aux Pruneaux is an elegant, uncomplicated dish from the Portland (Oregon) Junior League’s 1974 cookbook, No Regrets. English speakers can easily deduce “Pork” and “Prunes” from the title. The word Noisettes literally means hazelnuts, but in this context Noisettes de Porc translates roughly as “pork medallions”. The recipe seems to have roots in……
Caffeine-Free Espresso-Cardamom Rub (adapted from Grill Every Day, 2007)
Sometime in the late 2000s the coffee-rubbed steak was a minor trend in our local restaurants, not at the steak and chop houses so much as the upscale restaurants that feel obligated to have a steak on the menu. The most common pairing was coffee and chili, usually rubbed on an inexpensive butcher’s cut like……