1960s party food

[Aubrey]

Post your best recipes/ideas here. Mil's surprise costume party is this weekend, & I really want to impress the retired hippie crowd w/ their cool guitars & legendary friendships.

 

Y'all suggested "magic" brownies. Stellar. Anything else? I've googled, but I'm not doing anything with "prawns" for *anybody.*

 

Also, I'm extremely overwhelmed--dh just recovered from his weird skin disease, so I'm re-cooking the meal that didn't get sent to cousins in the hospital, my best friend just had a baby, I'm coordinating & cooking meals for her this weekend, watching her kids, giving directions to people who forget to click the google link in the care calendar, & talking on the phone. A lot. Returning emails asking me things I don't have a clue about--what kind of take-out for new baby family? head count for party? And there's still the divorce situation w/ my other friend, who has secured a lawyer but still needs quite a bit of moral support.

 

So if you tell me where to get prawns & that they're really not that hard, I might get a little ugly. :lol:

[LauraGB]

Fondue? You could do a cheese fondue for bread chunks and such and then the oil/steak kind (I really don't know what it's called, though; the hot oil is in the fondue pot and then the small chunks of meat get dipped into the oil to cook). For some reason, my ILs love this sort of thing.

[Hathersage]

Some deviled eggs maybe?

pigs in a blanket?

[Carol in Cal.]

I'm seeing green olives stuffed with those little red pimento chunks, speared on toothpicks with bright frilly little streamers on them.

 

Hot melted Velveeta in a chafing dish with stale white bread cubes to dip in it.

 

Canned pineapple chunks interleaved with bologna chunks on those decorative toothpicks.

 

Lipton onion soup dip with plain potato chips.

[The Girls' Mom]

suspend anything in jello. :tongue_smilie:

 

Here's some more inspiration for you.

 

:lol::lol:

[LauraGB]

Macaroni salad

Liver pate and crackers

cocktail wieners in barbecue sauce

Definitely the above mentioned green/red olives but also serve with both dill and sweet pickles

 

A big can of spray cheese and saltines? :D

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I was going to say fondue as well! Chocolate and cheese would be awesome and easy to do. Also, chips and dips and veggies and dips would be great! It seems to me lots of finger food.

 

dip recipes

 

Magic Mushroom Pate

 

The 60s may have been a time of free love, but you'll have a time coming up with the free food for the buffet at this party. Try getting into the groove with this tasty Mushroom Pate. It's an excellent way to use up leftover mushroom stems from those stuffed mushrooms.

 

3/4 pound chopped mushrooms

2 tbsp butter

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp dry sherry (or dry white wine)

1/2 Cup pecans, chopped

 

Saute the mushrooms in butter until dark (about 5min or so) and drain. Process or puree with the cream cheese, curry, worcestershire sauce, and sherry. Fold in the pecans and refrigerate. Garnish with parsley or watercress.

Ifyou like earthy, rich food than this dip is your thing, I know it's mine!

 

other food ideas

 

 

more food ideas

 

 

Hope you have a groovy time!:D

[Hathersage]

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups Pillsbury's Best All Purpose Flour

1 package Pillsbury Two Layer Size Buttercream Double Dutch Frosting Mix

2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

Oven 350 degrees F. Bundt Cake

Generously grease Bundt pan. In large mixer bowl, cream butter at high speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Gradually add sugar; beat at high speed until light and fluffy. By hand, stir in flour, dry frosting mix and walnuts until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degress F. for 60 to 65 minutes. Cool 1 hour; remove from pan. Cool completely before serving. Tips: Buttercream Double Dutch Frosting Mix and walnuts are essential to the success of this recipe. Since the cake has the softened tunnel of fudge, ordinary doneness tests can not be used. Test after 60 minutes by observing a dry, shiny brownie-type crust. Cake may be baked in 10-inch tube pan at 350 degreees F. for 60 to 65 minutes. Serve cake right side up as for a pound cake. *Pillsbury's Best Self-Rising Flour is not recomended for use in this recipe. High Altitude Adjustment--5,200 Feet. Bake at 275 degrees F. for 60 to 65 minutes."

[Aubrey]

Y'all are making me laugh & gag at the same time. I'm having visions of my great-grandmother's rust-colored shag carpet & matching avacado-shag placemats. :lol:

[Aubrey]

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups Pillsbury's Best All Purpose Flour

1 package Pillsbury Two Layer Size Buttercream Double Dutch Frosting Mix

2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

Oven 350 degrees F. Bundt Cake

Generously grease Bundt pan. In large mixer bowl, cream butter at high speed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Gradually add sugar; beat at high speed until light and fluffy. By hand, stir in flour, dry frosting mix and walnuts until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degress F. for 60 to 65 minutes. Cool 1 hour; remove from pan. Cool completely before serving. Tips: Buttercream Double Dutch Frosting Mix and walnuts are essential to the success of this recipe. Since the cake has the softened tunnel of fudge, ordinary doneness tests can not be used. Test after 60 minutes by observing a dry, shiny brownie-type crust. Cake may be baked in 10-inch tube pan at 350 degreees F. for 60 to 65 minutes. Serve cake right side up as for a pound cake. *Pillsbury's Best Self-Rising Flour is not recomended for use in this recipe. High Altitude Adjustment--5,200 Feet. Bake at 275 degrees F. for 60 to 65 minutes."

 

Oooh...& I've got a bundt pan that has space for "filler" i.e. tie-dyed jello. (At least, that's what they put in the picture. On the rare occasion that I use it, I put fruit in there.)

[DianeW88]

I agree with all the pp on their food choices. The '60s were kind of a culinary nightmare! If you want something fun to read about '60s food choices, you HAVE to check out anything James Lileks writes on the subject. My family and I literally laugh until we cry over his books on mid-century American food. What were we THINKING???

 

Here's a link to one of his funniest on Amazon. It might be a fun door prize for your themed party.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Gallery-Regrettable-Food-James-Lileks/dp/0609607820/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276630538&sr=8-3

[Aubrey]

Oooh...& I've got a bundt pan that has space for "filler" i.e. tie-dyed jello. (At least, that's what they put in the picture. On the rare occasion that I use it, I put fruit in there.)

 

Ok, the thought of jello packed into the hidden middle of a bundt cake just gave me violent shivers. I don't know if I can handle the 60s. Spam, anyone?

[Hathersage]

I found the foodtimeline website...

 

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1960s

[rookie]

I think that you can go two ways with food for the sixties. If we are talking Hippies Sixties, I think of:

 

curried dishes

vegetarian dishes

seeds (like roasted pumpkin)

hemp brownies

 

The jello molds, dips, etc., I consider to be the party food for the hippies' parents.

[Aubrey]

I think that you can go two ways with food for the sixties. If we are talking Hippies Sixties, I think of:

 

curried dishes

vegetarian dishes

seeds (like roasted pumpkin)

hemp brownies

 

The jello molds, dips, etc., I consider to be the party food for the hippies' parents.

 

You know, that sounds more right, actually. I can't imagine people eating magic brownies next to liver patte.

 

Alright, everybody, let's try again. Hippie Sixties. Less gagging. :lol:

[Aubrey]

The jello molds, dips, etc., I consider to be the party food for the hippies' parents.

 

Iow, people still worried about their food surviving a nuclear holocaust, right? :tongue_smilie:

[Carol in Cal.]

I think that you can go two ways with food for the sixties. If we are talking Hippies Sixties, I think of:

 

curried dishes

vegetarian dishes

seeds (like roasted pumpkin)

hemp brownies

 

The jello molds, dips, etc., I consider to be the party food for the hippies' parents.

 

Soy loaf would be appropo. Very, very heavy soy loaf. With nothing on it.

[Carol in Cal.]

Macaroni salad

Liver pate and crackers

cocktail wieners in barbecue sauce

Definitely the above mentioned green/red olives but also serve with both dill and sweet pickles

 

A big can of spray cheese and saltines? :D

 

Not liver pate. That was 1977. In the 60s you would have Liver SAUSAGE. (Oscar Meyer).

 

Definitely cocktail wieners, though.

 

Oh, and deviled stuff! Deviled chicken, deviled ham, chipped beef--all on, you guessed it, slightly stale white bread spread with salted butter first. Egg salad sandwiches. Olive salad sandwiches. Jello molds with canned fruit suspended in them. (Green jello optional)

Edited June 15, 2010 by Carol in Cal.

[cocoabean]

Chocolate or cheese fondue, with fruit or bread cubes to dip in it

Traditional punch made with pineapple or lime sherbet floating atop

Anything pineapple, like upside down cake with the cherries on top

Coconut Cake

Platters of quartered sandwiches with tuna salad, egg salad, or ham salad

Platters of veggie sticks (celery, carrots, pickles, broccoli and cauliflower)

Platters with cubed ham, cheeses, little smokies and cut up lunch meats (think sizes like 1/4 of a slice of bologna) served with toothpicks and party crackers

Bowls of chips with onion, bean or ranch dips

Chex snack mix and bowls of mixed nuts

Frosted white sheetcakes with either devil's food or white cake inside

 

HTH!

[nrg]

I was a child in the 60s and my parents had cocktail parties. I remember them serving rumaki as the big treat.

 

http://www.greatpartyrecipes.com/rumakirecipe.html

 

They did everything according to Sunset magazine. Some culinary delights I remember were savory gelatin dishes, stuffed tomatoes, hors d'oevres involving broiled tomatoes with cheese on them, little baked cheese balls made with Bisquick, ak mak crackers with smoked salmon and cream cheese, shish kebabs on the grill, and lots of things made to seem Polynesian somehow.

 

Have fun with this!

[Kathleen in VA]

Chocolate or cheese fondue, with fruit or bread cubes to dip in it

Traditional punch made with pineapple or lime sherbet floating atop

Anything pineapple, like upside down cake with the cherries on top

Coconut Cake

Platters of quartered sandwiches with tuna salad, egg salad, or ham salad

Platters of veggie sticks (celery, carrots, pickles, broccoli and cauliflower)

Platters with cubed ham, cheeses, little smokies and cut up lunch meats (think sizes like 1/4 of a slice of bologna) served with toothpicks and party crackers

Bowls of chips with onion, bean or ranch dips

Chex snack mix and bowls of mixed nuts

Frosted white sheetcakes with either devil's food or white cake inside

 

HTH!

 

That was going to be my offering.:D

[Carol in Cal.]

Except you make it yourself, in the oven.

It's so much better than the storebought kind you buy now.

 

And Porcupine meatballs, the ones with the dry rice in them that would swell and start sticking out during cooking.

 

And Swedish meatballs, or Swedish stuffed cabbage. You know, those actually tasted good.

[Aubrey]

Except you make it yourself, in the oven.

It's so much better than the storebought kind you buy now.

 

And Porcupine meatballs, the ones with the dry rice in them that would swell and start sticking out during cooking.

 

And Swedish meatballs, or Swedish stuffed cabbage. You know, those actually tasted good.

 

Mil still makes all 3 of these, so they must be good choices! :001_smile:

[2cents]

Skewers with blocks of cheese, pimento olives, salami, pineapple etc. (basically antipasto on a stick).

 

Cheese-wiz...on anything.

 

And my mom's favorite...the mainstay of our diet growing up, Tuna Casserole

[catalinakel]

This is what I think of when I think of food from the sixties.....

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/

[Farrar]

How is it that in this thread Mad Men hasn't come up? I can't think of any of their party food (though I know I've seen it) but I will never forget the picnic where at the end, they threw all the trash off the blanket AND LEFT IT THERE! Eek.

[newbie]

Fondue and cheese balls.

[Hathersage]

How is it that in this thread Mad Men hasn't come up? I can't think of any of their party food (though I know I've seen it) but I will never forget the picnic where at the end, they threw all the trash off the blanket AND LEFT IT THERE! Eek.

 

 

Mad Men parties are very popular these days. However, the OP was looking for more 60's Hippie style party.

[bookfiend]

Hot artichoke dip.

 

Is there anyway you can take the 60's concept and transform the food into something edible?

[MaMa2005]

Stuffed green peppers. I hated green peppers growing up in the 60's and so help me, my mother fixed these at least once a week.

 

Still not a fan of them 50 years later!

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Check out this "60s Recipes" webpage. Make sure you scroll down to the "Seafoam Canteloupe Pie" (gag!) :tongue_smilie:

 

http://www.ghosttraveller.com/sixties%20recipes.htm

[3littlekeets]

If you want something themey, but EDIBLE, what about tie-dyed cheesecake that is still YUMMY!

 

We had it at PoP Century at Disney and fell in love. Here is the first one that came on google

http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/13/tie-dyed-red-velvet-cheesecake-recipe

http://www.cookiesncandy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/tie-dyed-cheesecake.jpg

[JFSinIL]

Fondue, rumaki (water chestnut and chicken liver wrapped with bacon and broiled), Chex mix....my folks always had these at their parties (I was born in '59).

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Cheese log?

[Teachin'Mine]

Crackers with the cheese in a can that you squirt onto the crackers. :lol:

 

As already mentioned, the little hot dogs, chips and dip, bundt cake, jello (or anything in a mold for that matter lol) ...

 

Don't forget Cheese Doodles (sp?) and Bugles ...

 

Sweedish meatballs!!!

 

Baked clams on the half shell ...

Edited June 16, 2010 by Teachin'Mine

[Alice]

Thanks for starting this thread! We just moved into a house built in 1961 and were thinking about having a 60's themed open house for fun. Some good ideas here. We'd serve other food too (so people could actually eat :)) but what party isn't better with "something suspended in Jello".

[Aubrey]

If you want something themey, but EDIBLE, what about tie-dyed cheesecake that is still YUMMY!

 

We had it at PoP Century at Disney and fell in love. Here is the first one that came on google

http://www.slashfood.com/2006/03/13/tie-dyed-red-velvet-cheesecake-recipe

http://www.cookiesncandy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/tie-dyed-cheesecake.jpg

 

I love it!

 

What about TANG?

[Aubrey]

Hot artichoke dip.

 

Is there anyway you can take the 60's concept and transform the food into something edible?

 

Funny-but-not-edible is my forte. As long as it's suspended in jello, there's fair warning. ;)

[Hathersage]

I love it!

 

What about TANG?

 

TANG! LOL. if you want to find close to tasting original tang, look for it in hispanic grocrey sections. If want to make a cocktail, a "Moonbeam" is Tang and Jim Beam.

[Kate in Arabia]

 

If want to make a cocktail, a "Moonbeam" is Tang and Jim Beam.

My mother just informed me that they referred to tang as "moon" because it was the drink the astronauts drank during space missions? She also seconded the rumaki and fondue.

[Liz CA]

I'm seeing green olives stuffed with those little red pimento chunks, speared on toothpicks with bright frilly little streamers on them.

 

Hot melted Velveeta in a chafing dish with stale white bread cubes to dip in it.

 

Canned pineapple chunks interleaved with bologna chunks on those decorative toothpicks.

 

Lipton onion soup dip with plain potato chips.

 

Oh gosh...whatever you decide, don't use Velveeta for cheese! You could be sued if someone dies and you would probably feel bad.

[kalanamak]

My mother used to make these and hint they were pot brownies. She'd make them after cutting down the K-weed that grew under our bird feeder. She was disappointed when I found the recipe in her box.

 

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/28/Sauerkraut-Brownies80505.shtml

[Aubrey]

My mother used to make these and hint they were pot brownies. She'd make them after cutting down the K-weed that grew under our bird feeder. She was disappointed when I found the recipe in her box.

 

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/28/Sauerkraut-Brownies80505.shtml

 

Saurkrautt in the brownies???

 

That passes a legal limit of grossness, even for a themed party. That's past spam & velveeta & even prawn. But...how did they taste? (Morbid curiosity)

[kalanamak]

But...how did they taste? (Morbid curiosity)

 

Just fine, with a little vegetably chewiness.

 

You had to know my mother to appreciate this. She would have been the LAST person on earth to make pot brownies. She never held a cigarette in her hand, was never drunk, lectured me on the evils of pepper (you got used to "racy" foods, and the next thing you knew you'd be onto harder stuff).

[lovemyboys]

Y'all suggested "magic" brownies. Stellar.

 

:001_huh: Does this mean what I think it means?

 

 

:lol: Anyway, tator tots? (or were those 70s?) That light green jello and pineapple salad thing? Gotta have some kind of jello salad. Shish kebabs. Teriyaki chicken on little skewers. Cream cheese on celery. Rootbeer floats. Sherbet and gingerale punch. Baked ziti. Wonder bread (crusts off) bologna sandwiches for the kids. Orange and grape nehi. Kool-aid.

 

Definitely deviled eggs (some plain, some w/parsley flakes, some paprika) and pigs-in-a-blanket, mini gherkins.

 

eta: Oh man, just read through all the other posts....too funny. I was little, but I remember those picnics and parties! Tang, cheese balls, onion soup dip, fondues. Too funny. We still make the chex mix for a whole new generation! We made ours with cheerios too.

Have fun, Aubrey.

Edited June 16, 2010 by lovemyboys

[Aubrey]

Fil just called. He's ordering all the food. :svengo:

 

After the ordeal w/ the invitations, I'm shocked. Happy-shocked.

 

But, uh, I sorta forgot to tell him it's a costume party. :001_huh: Or he doesn't *remember* that I told him...yeah. That. :D

 

(Btw, he thinks we didn't ever send out invitations because he didn't get one. :smilielol5:Um...who checks your mail????)

 

Anyway, I'm just doing the cake now. It's going to be a KILLER cake. (Maybe.)