The Fifties

1950's Menu

(As appearing in July 1956 Good Housekeeping) 

Sauteed Spam 

Instant Mashed Potatoes

Frozen Buttered Peas

Fruit Trifle

This meal was proudly served on my grandmother's china that was passed down to me. The china was manufactured after the war. She couldn't remember the story of how she got it, but she was married in 1947, so I'm pretty sure this china was used throughout the 1950's. 

So I won't lie. When I was reading through the fifties and planning a meal, I was feeling tired and lazy and I chose this menu because it looked easy. And I can't believe I'm putting this out there in a public forum...but I like spam. I'm sorry if I lose any friendships over this well hidden secret. Also, I wanted to try out my new frying pan....

It worked as advertised.

The fifties were really big on outdoor barbecue and our current living situation doesn't allow for such, so there went half the recipes for the decade. Also, gourmet cooking at home kind of became a thing and prepackaged foods were a hit. It seems like the thing was to get your can of condensed tomato soup and doctor it up. I was kind of tempted to make a borscht that had ingredients made out of jarred baby food. Maybe the second time around...

So putting this meal together was pretty basic and a no brainer. While I fried the spam I contemplated life as a 1950's housewife. I've always felt I should have been one. I'm a bit old fashioned and classy (at least I'd like to think so). I started thinking about June Cleaver and maybe I should go get my pearls on. But pearls with yoga pants and a tank top don't work, so maybe I should dress up a bit. And if I was going to dress up, what would I put on? I didn't really have anything that would work for the 50's theme. If I had thought of this further ahead of time, I could have gone and scoured Goodwill's and come up with a 50's outfit and how awesome would that be? And then I smelled the spam burning and decided to stick with what I did know. 

The dessert was made with sponge cake (that I did make from scratch) and instant pudding and canned fruit cocktail.

It was well received...

(What? Is it not common to have ladders and ski equipment and scuba equipment in your dining room?)

Overall, the kids seemed to like the meal okay. Christopher dutifully choked down 15 peas. (I made a rule when they were kids they had to eat how many veggies as they were years old. I never really said they had to keep doing it, but Christopher still chokes down 15 of whatever veggie is served). Ryan claimed the mashed potatoes the best ones I've ever made, which I really did take offense at. I make much better REAL mashed potatoes than those instant ones. 

The kids are really getting into this, asking ahead what year we are eating in this week, getting music set up and asking questions about things that were happening in history at the time. This week Ana asked me if I was born in the 50s and Ryan asked if electricity had been invented yet. I tried to cut them some slack. I was pretty sure my parents were born in the 1800's when I was younger too....

....and that was our night in the 50's....