"The cookbook with the difference"

You've stumbled upon a weird little blog. Welcome. Here is a brief(ish) introduction,

I am a child of the late '80s and early '90s. I have lived in Massachusetts for the past 8 years but I was born and raised in southeastern Virginia. Like all other humans, my upbringing, era of birth, gender, geography - all influence my outlook on life. I place value based on these cultural lenses, make judgments and decisions influenced by them, and have preferences because of them. So please, take this next statement with these previous grains of Kosher salt in mind:

The shit that was going on with food in the late '60s was seriously screwed up.

I say this because of the cookbook that has lived in my family's home since long before I was born: the 1969 edition of Betty Crocker's Cookbook. 

You'll notice an image of it above this post. This is a photo of the book in mint condition that turned up for me on a Google search. Our family's copy...not so pretty. It's pages are yellow, splotched, stained. The spine is now held together with packing tape. Many of the recipes inside have a nice big checkmark next to them. This checkmark announces "Yes, I made this crazy swill for my family. I made it with a smile on my face and margarine. Lots of margarine."

WTF is a "flavor gem"?

All this is to say, this book has been well used. It's been around as long as I can remember. Our family's favorite dinner rolls come from this book. It's pulled out of the kitchen hutch when you want to make real frosting for a birthday cake, or when you forget what temperature you need to get to when making caramels.

However,

there are more than just the old standbys in this particular volume. The '60's burgeoned a whole new cooking world for, let's just say it, women in the kitchen. And Betty Crocker was at the forefront of new, adventurous ways of cooking. And especially exciting, cooking that was more convenient. Betty was a big part of this of course. Our Imminent Mother and Holy Queen Betty Crocker gave us THE CAKE MIX. I could go deeper into this but again I am trying to remain brief(ish). If you want to know more about Betty and how she "revolutionized" the cake world, you should watch Alton Brown's show Good Eats, episode "Devil of a Cake." It's on Netflix. Alton is my hero.

Alton is bae. 

Anyway, because this new frontier was all about making things easier, quicker, more conveniently - and maybe because we had just landed a man on the moon - food got seriously wacky. This cookbook is the ultimate proof. And that's what I want to blog about.

Each week, I'm going to choose from the most wacky of the wacka-doo recipes. Whether it is an sassy appetizer like the "Nippy Blue Cheese Dip," a terrifying entree such as the "Stuffed Beef Heart," or a tantalizing dessert like "Baked Prune Whip," I will approach each with respect, dignity, nausea, horror, curiosity and yes, a sense of humor. I will post the recipes, how the cooking went down, how everything (gulp) tastes and what cultural tidbits I can add as well.

If you'd be interested, stick around! If not, well, okay.

So there's the idea! There's my plan, and letter to you, whoever is reading. And here's what Betty has to say:

May we all find someone to bring us "a brace of pheasants."