Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cook Book - 1963/1972 received as a gift. Hmm, is this cooking or marketing?

[SpecialClassical]

My 10 yr old boy enjoys cooking. He is able to make homemade biscuits, muffins, etc and stovetop things like pasta and eggs. So my mom gave him the BH&G cook book. He started reading some recipes to me and they were entertaining!

 

Flip Flop Pancakes - Step one says, " Look on pancake mix package directions. Mix batter according to directions to make 12-14 pancakes."

 

Circus Time Lemonade ingredients- lemonade concentrate, cold water, ice cubes, lemon slices. Again, "Add as much water as it says on the side of the can."

 

French Fried Potatoes ingredients- frozen French Fried Potatoes, salt. The intructions are pretty much turn on oven, bake potatoes, sprinkle salt on them. Pretty sure the bag of taters says the same.

 

There are some real recipes in there, but these were too funny.

[SpecialClassical]

I realized this might have looked like an ad. Sorry about that. I think this type of thinking in regard to food was typical of the time and is very much the way my husband grew up.

[In the Rain]

I guess it helps out the seriously inexperienced child chef. :laugh: I had a Disney cookbook as a child, and I don't remember it having recipes like that. My dh gets really testy about recipes that are more about combining prepared foods than actual "cooking".

[SpecialClassical]

I think it's still typical. LOL

 

But yeah I hear you. How is that a recipe?

 

 

Is it still typical? I hear all the time about the typical American diet and wonder if very many people actually eat out several times a week and have only prepared foods when at home. Maybe I just spend too much time one these boards and on reading about whole foods.

[SpecialClassical]

 

 

I don't really know what most people do. I do know that when I worked full time and pre kids we ate out a lot. I was just too tired to cook half the time and DH won't cook. I have little doubt we'd eat out more and use more convenience foods if I didn't have the energy otherwise.

 

That is interesting. I always tell myself I would eat better if I wasn't at home around food all the time. But I would probably be so worn out, I would tend toward convenience foods as well.

[Mrs Mungo]

 

 

Is it still typical? I hear all the time about the typical American diet and wonder if very many people actually eat out several times a week and have only prepared foods when at home. Maybe I just spend too much time one these boards and on reading about whole foods.

 

 

I have several friends whose families eat out for every meal. I have taught newbie Army wives (especially in foreign countries or remote locations) to brown hamburger, make iced tea and cook scrambled eggs. Plenty of people don't cook at all.

[SpecialClassical]

 

 

I have several friends whose families eat out for every meal. I have taught newbie Army wives (especially in foreign countries or remote locations) to brown hamburger, make iced tea and cook scrambled eggs. Plenty of people don't cook at all.

 

I guess it all depends what circles you are in. We had international college students visit our home and they asked about some baked goods we served. My friend whose husband worked with the students said that the students didn't think Americans cooked, so I guess they were surprised my daughter did the baking. I thought it was funny that they assumed that, but maybe I was the uninformed one!

[Brilliant]

I love my older cookbooks - they are so fun, partly for the reasons you listed. They were really into new-fangled convenience foods in the 60s & 70s!

 

One thing that drives me nuts is when they refer to a certain size of package which is no longer available because the manufacturers thought we wouldn't notice decreasing package sizes...:(