Notes from the Spring Creek Arts Guild

The truth is I could talk about recipes and food every other week for the rest of my life, but I will try to limit myself to a three-part series this time. The last two columns have been about food-package recipes, and this one will be following that same vein. This morning, I am thinking about all of the twentieth century dishes that came along because of advances in food processing. There were so many inventions or developments in packaged foods and ingredients, things that were totally unfamiliar to home cooks, so the food processing companies hired home economists to come up with ways to use the products. That is how we got things like Jello salads.

These days, most of the chefs or cooks on television seem to really look down on all those mid-century treasures I grew up on like those that called for four cans of something or a box of instant pudding along with a tub of Cool Whip. People crinkle their noses at Cheez Whiz, but the broccoli rice casserole made with a jar of Cheez Whiz and a can of Cream of Chicken Soup is a classic. Even my mother has taken to replacing Cool Whip with actual whipped cream when she makes Pea Pickin’ Cake!

At my mother’s side family events, everyone waits for my Aunt Catherine to show up with the Pea Salad, made with canned green peas and jarred mayonnaise, among other ingredients. At my husband’s side family events, Penny Pulatie and I fight over Cherie Ringo’s bowl of “Pink Stuff,” which I think is really called Cherry Salad or Cherry Fluff, which involves a few cans and some Cool Whip. Lately, I have seen an upward trend of Watergate Salad—instant pudding, more Cool Whip, more miniature marshmallows, and, in my experience, pecans. I have been to many potlucks where the hit of the meal was a Dump Cake, which is primarily a dry cake mix layered with canned cherry pie filling, canned pineapple, nuts, and melted butter.

The common elements to all of these dishes is that they are fast and simple to make and that the ingredients are easy to find and keep stocked in your kitchen. None of them require special techniques or specialized equipment—although I love a good kitchen gadget, but that is a whole other tangent I could go on. I have seen a few of this genre of recipes either fade away or get re-tooled because a key ingredient disappeared from store shelves. My mother’s 1970s Tunnel of Fudge cake went away for a decade or two once Pillsbury stopped making Double Dutch Frosting Mix. I see that now the recipe has been reincarnated in several different versions, and I may have to give it a whirl. My Four Bean Salad has lately become a Three Bean Salad since canned wax beans have become nearly impossible to find. It is still good, just not as colorful.

Now it is time for me to make some breakfast with home grown eggs, potatoes, and tomatoes. See? I like the fresh, made-from-scratch, home-grown, organic, minimally processed foods, too. The key to life is balance! SpringCreekArtsGuild@gmail.com