A Small Victory

Now, what would be a trip through nostalgia land without mentioning Jame Lileks, the master of all nostalgia best left forgotten?

See this regretable weiner dish James writes about? That's got nothing on my mother's culinary delights of the 60's and 70's (I think she gave up her attempts at fancy cooking in the 80's).

Everything was a casserole or cooked in one pot. Betty Crocker's book sat on the counter and my mother consulted it daily for recipes for meals that combined things that no one ever thought to combine before. And for a good reason.

Mom - who has never tried to pass herself off as good cook - would take a roasting pan, line it with pork-n-beans, and throw a couple of hot dogs wrapped in bacon on top of the beans. She'd bake it and then toss some saurekraut on top for good measure. She called this dinner. My dad called it shit. My sisters and still laugh about it.

Unfortunately, bad food was a staple of the times and 90% of those horrid recipes had something to do with hot dogs or tuna.

Mackerel Pudding, anyone?