Date I made this recipe:
August 4, 2013
Poppy Cannon’s
Bride’s Cookbook by Poppy Cannon (originally published in 1954 as The Bride’s Cookbook. Revised edition published in 1961 as The ABC’s of Quick and Glamorous Cooking.)
Published by: Paperback Library
© 1954; Paperback Library Edition First Printing: May, 1970
Recipe: Iowa
Pork Chop Casserole – p. 202
“We’ve only just begun
to live…white lace and promises…a kiss for luck and we’re on our way….”
I cannot get this song out of my head! This is We’ve
Only Just Begun, written in 1970 by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams, and
made famous by The Carpenters (brother
and sister Richard and Karen Carpenter).
This had to have been the most played wedding songs of the 1970’s. I certainly heard it over and over and over
again at weddings I attended back in the day.
It does not have a beat and you cannot dance to it but it’s catchy,
right?
Seems to me that when it comes to wedding invites, it either
rains or it pours. This year, it’s
pouring. (Disclaimer: the older we get, the fewer the weddings so
to us more than one is a deluge). We started
off our wedding season with a family wedding at the end of July, another
wedding locally last Sunday, August 11th, and have another one
scheduled for September 28th. And in between, we received a notice that one
of our male friends, someone who we thought was a confirmed bachelor, got
married in June – congratulations, Mike and Rhonda! So weddings abound!
The first wedding of the summer was of a cousin’s daughter,
held in New Jersey
at a lovely church and then later a lovely country club. The bride and groom are in their late 20’s
but showed great sophistication and attention to detail in their
arrangements. The entire thing was a
blast and let me just say that the dance floor was never empty. Not once.
The DJ played a fabulous mix of music and impressively, a lot of men
were up there dancing (and dancing well, I might add). Hats off to them, I say!
The second wedding this past weekend, was of a completely
different nature. The bride and groom
were older (50’s and 60’s) and the focus was on inclusiveness. Both are active members of their church and
the bride also sings with the choir.
While she sat out her own ceremony, some 50-odd choir members sang for her
and if that wasn’t impressive enough, they also had an organist, vocal soloists
and two violinists to round out the musical portion of our program. And that was just at the church. At the reception, table cards notified us
that family and friends would perform in an “open mike” setting. We had no idea what to expect and so were pleasantly
surprised at the song selections (The Beatles
– unplugged) and caliber of the musicians – there was not a clunker in the
room which is to say that this was most assuredly not Karaoke Night at the
local bar!
Weddings though, were not always this unique or that
personalized. Back when my parents got
married (1957), you typically had your cake and your punch and maybe you had a
dinner or a brunch but maybe not. It was noted in newspaper articles if the
ceremony was double-ring, meaning both the bride and the groom wore wedding
bands – again, not common for both like they are today. Bands and most certainly not DJ’s were not often found at the reception. Favors were not de rigueur. And brides and bridesmaids were certainly not
of the “zilla” (i.e. “bridezilla”) nature.
You had your personalized matchbooks and napkins, you had certain
friends designated to do various tasks (pour coffee, cut cake, unwrap gifts)
and that was about that. No bells, no
whistles, just a focus on the ceremony and most importantly, the marriage. Easy peasey.
If 50’s weddings were streamlined and easy, so was cooking
preparation. Although the cover of Poppy Cannon’s Bride’s Cookbook shows a
70’s bride (the paperback was published in 1970), the book was published
originally in 1954 and let me tell you, it confirms everything that I know
about cooking in the 50’s – canned food was king! Many of the recipes in this book call upon
you to use canned macaroni and cheese or canned spaghetti or basically canned [fill
in the blank]. If it was in a can, you
were cooking with Crisco. Women in the 50’s wanted food in a hurry and
what better way to make that happen then to open a can, Stan.
And so along came Poppy Cannon and she gave you everything
you needed in 343 pages to make sure that the new bride was going to make her
man happy by getting dinner on the table as soon as he came home. Entertaining also increased during this
period but our Poppy was ready for it --there’s a chapter titled “Meat for Your
Man to Eat” as well as “Secrets to Make You a Star Hostess.” There’s even a chapter called “Cater Your Own
Wedding,” something many brides-to-be employed when the budget was an
issue. (It should go without saying that
budget-busting weddings were not a happenin’ thing back then.)
Okay, so…after reviewing the cookbook a couple of times, I
started the elimination process, taking out my “absolutely not” recipes, beginning
with recipes like Dressed-Up Chip Beef
with Almonds to which I say “You can’t put lipstick on that pig” then
adding a recipe for “Bile Fish” (Boiled
Halibut) Virgin Island Style.
Right. The way to make a new
husband happy is to say “How was your day, dear? I thought I’d serve “bile fish”
tonight.” And while I love chicken, I am
so not ever using canned chicken, especially for something so easy at Roast Chicken with Stuffing. I mean – really? Canned chicken for that???
My list kept whittling and whittling until finally, in near
desperation, I settled on today’s recipe: Iowa
Pork Chop Casserole. And okay, yes,
this recipe includes a can of soup but that’s to be expected – soup and
casseroles go together like peanut butter and jelly. If it had called for canned pork chops
however, all bets would have been off.
I’ve mentioned before in this blog that my mother had to
ease into cooking but I can see her making this recipe for dad. It contains meat (very important), is easy
and she could have made up a bowl of mashed potatoes for an instant full
meal. My mom likely would have set the
table with a tablecloth of some sort and maybe candles whereas Andy and I go
the total casual route and eat our food in front of the TV set as we have
always done since the day we got married 22 years ago. Bad bride!
Bad!
Although I have several cookbooks by Poppy Cannon in my
collection, the cover (and the bride dressed in what I consider to be a hideous
1970’s wedding dress) is the sole reason I bought this book on Etsy.
The recipes were rather disappointing, most of them calling for what I
call “rude food” (like canned chicken) and nothing really stood out but that’s
okay – sometimes you just have to have a cookbook for reasons other than the
food. If all else fails, be sure to peruse the “Beverages ‘Round the Clock”
chapter, pour yourself a glass of said beverage and call it a day.
Iowa Pork Chop Casserole – 4 servings
1 can condensed Cream of Chicken soup
2 cups canned peas
4 pork chops
2 bay leaves, halved
Put the can of cream of chicken soup (undiluted) in a baking
dish with 2 cups drained canned peas.
Season the pork chops with salt and pepper and arrange on top of baking
dish, placing ½ bay leaf under each.
Bake in a low oven, 325F, about 45 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake about 15 minutes
until chops brown.
Make or buy mashed potatoes to accompany your meal.
No comments:
Post a Comment