Sharing the Retro Recipe Love: Moussaka-In-A-Hurry

The other day I was searching for a recipe in my own collection, which is housed in a small tin box. This box is one of my most treasured possessions. Contained within are handwritten recipes from my Grandmother, my Mother, family, and friends.  These are my go-to dishes; the recipes I make again and again. The “I almost have the recipe memorized, but still consult the card just to make sure I didn’t miss anything” dishes.  So, imagine my surprise when I came across a single card from my mother’s vintage collection tucked into the Main Dishes section.  The recognition was immediate and it brought a smile to my face.  It is the only recipe that was ever moved from the see through plastic box into the beloved tin. The only one that broke up the set.  It was the recipe for Moussaka-in-a-Hurry. Here's the story:

Valentine’s Day, 1991. A young woman is frantically trying to find the perfect dish to make for her new boyfriend.  It is their first Valentine’s Day together.  Home from college, she remembers her Mother’s collection of recipe cards and how sophisticated they all seemed when she was five.  She pores through each section and settles upon a dish called Moussaka-in-a-Hurry.  She reasons that, since her boyfriend loves all sorts of food from other countries, why not Greece? Greece seems like it would have some romantic food.  Also, he's studying to become an architect and Greece has the Acropolis. It was all coming together.  This meal worked on so many levels.

Looking back, it is important to note that I knew Moussaka was a tasty dish.  I had first tried it in the summer of 1990, on a trip to Europe. Basically, it is a casserole of fresh vegetables and ground meat in a creamy, béchamel-type sauce.  The recipe for Moussaka-in-a-Hurry was reminiscent of that dish in the sense that it had ground beef and eggplant.  In all other ways, however, it bore absolutely no resemblance.  One of the ingredients, especially, made me raise an eyebrow: Campbell’s Cheddar Cheese Soup.  I remember feeling slightly crestfallen.  After all, I wanted to impress my boyfriend with not only my culinary skills, but also my globe-trekking worldliness, regaling him with tales of my travels and trying Moussaka for the first time. All of a sudden, my cosmopolitan dish was taken down a few pegs.  Really? Condensed soup?  In place of béchamel?  Still, I made it and it was a huge success.  My boyfriend loved it, especially the sauce.  He inquired what it was and I just smiled and said, “it’s a secret”.  

Now, twenty-five years later, I still make this dish for him at least once a year.  Usually on Valentine’s Day or our anniversary.  On Valentine’s Day, 2005, I finally told him what the secret ingredient was.

A Regrettable Meal: Perfection Salad

Another gem from my mother's collection. This salad sets the bar pretty low for "perfection".

A Regrettable Meal: Ham and Bananas Hollandaise

When I began looking through the recipe card collection after thirty years, I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the recipes could be updated or adapted to fit our family's taste. Some, however, could not. Some were too horrible. This is one such recipe.  I cannot fathom the thought process where, when asked to create a delicious meal, this was the final result.  I suspect mind altering drugs played a role here. After all, it was the 70's.
To me, this looks like a platter full of Freudian analysis just waiting to happen..."sometimes a ham-wrapped, hollandaise-doused banana is just a ham-wrapped, hollandaise-doused banana." Now, tell me about your mother. 

It's All in the Presentation: Release the Kraken!

Release the Kraken!

Flashback...1977

My mother got them at a yard sale. Two complete sets of recipe cards in pristine condition. The "McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection" from 1974 and "Betty Crocker's Step By Step Recipes" from 1975.
The McCall's collection was housed in a box with a clear, hinged top which allowed me to peer inside and get a good look at the brightly colored divider cards emblazoned with names like "New England", "Creole Country" and "The Old South". I found these titles so intriguing and authoritative that I implicitly trusted that the recipes chosen for each category were, in fact, the quintessential recipes that embodied these geographic locales. Yes, the rich cultural and culinary heritages of these regions could be boiled down to twenty or so carefully chosen recipes. Surely no others would ever be needed…or wanted.
The Betty Crocker collection was encased in a solid mold of thick, orange plastic that gave no hint of the treasures it held within. And, when I say orange, I mean that special shade of orange that, along with mustard yellow and dirt brown made up the holy trinity of the 70's color palette. It was more orange than orange, if that's possible.  This set offered not just one picture of the final product, but several step-by- step color photos of how to create it. I was fascinated.
I spent hours looking through the recipes, marveling at the colorful photos. I had never seen or tasted dishes like these. These offerings were oh-so fancy, and oh-so cosmopolitan to a young girl of five. In my imagination, these recipes were served at lavish dinner parties where elegant, worldly women wearing Windsong perfume and dashing men wearing Old Spice cologne sipped endless snifters of Harvey's Bristol Cream. After all, those were the most grown up things I knew.
For years these boxes occupied a place of prominence in our kitchen. An odd place for a collection of recipe cards that, as far as I could remember, my mother never used. She claims that she did, but the only evidence that I have ever found of my mother's presence is the word "good" written in her hand in green ink on one of the stray cards stuck in front of the box. A card that belonged to neither set.

The years passed and I forgot about the cards. Then, about five years ago, my mother called to ask me if I wanted any of her cookbooks since she didn't use most of them anymore. Suddenly, the cards flashed in my mind. "Do you still have those boxes of recipes I used to love..."
So, at last, my beloved cards and I are reunited after more than three decades.  As I began to go through the boxes with the eye and palate of an adult, however, I realized that some of the recipes were not only dated, but horrific. Undaunted, I pressed on and managed to sort the cards into three basic categories:

1. Recipes that I would make.
2. Oh. My. God. No...Seriously? Eww.
3. I bet you I could get so and so to try this. They'll eat anything.

So, my plan is to make some of the recipes from these collections and post about my cooking adventures. Some will be easily assimilated into a weeknight menu. Others...not so much. And, who knows? I may even serve Harvey's Bristol Crème…