Subject: Todd Ehlers

• Throwback of the House: Wiener Throwdown - Circle Pups

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsMy friend Maggie sent me a blog post by Spanno regarding "vintage hot dog horrors." Ha ha. Funny.But...wait. It's just pictures of shitty old recipes. Sure, that crown roast made of hot dogs looks hilarious, but did Spanno make and eat it? No. At least I took the effort to make my Treet crown roast and take a bite.Okay, a nibble.Honestly, my husband ate most of the meat product, I ate the strawberries that didn't have Treet goo on them, and the rest went into the tr

  June 2, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Dinner Entertaining for Jerks

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsRobin Wheeler writes for the blog Poppy Mom. After years of making and eating fancy food, Robin is sick of it all. She's returning to the basics: recipes that haven't surfaced in three decades. She reports on the results for Gut Check every Tuesday.I hate the drop-in visit. If you ring my doorbell unannounced, you're going to be waiting awhile, because I'll be in the basement, willing the bell to short and give you a jolt.I'm a lovely hostess. Really. Just let me k

  April 14, 2009

• Throwback of the House: No Nukes for Cakes

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsRobin Wheeler writes for the blog Poppy Mom. After years of making and eating fancy food, Robin is sick of it all. She's returning to the basics: recipes that haven't surfaced in three decades. She reports on the results for Gut Check every Tuesday.I remember my family's first microwave oven. It was 1980, and the first thing my dad cooked was a few slices of bologna.For ten minutes.On high.Robin WheelerHe left the curled, blackened slices on a plate in the fridge,

  May 19, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Busy Lady Beef Bake Starts a Revolution

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsRobin Wheeler writes for the blog Poppy Mom. After years of making and eating fancy food, Robin is sick of it all. She's returning to the basics: recipes that haven't surfaced in three decades. She reports on the results for Gut Check every Tuesday.Are you a busy lady? I'm a busy lady. There were lots of busy ladies in 1966, entering recipes in the 17th annual Pillsbury Busy Lady Bake-Off in hopes of winning the $25,000 grand prize.What better time than the mid-196

  May 5, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Meat-Hinge

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsRobin Wheeler writes for the blog Poppy Mom. After years of making and eating fancy food, Robin is sick of it all. She's returning to the basics: recipes that haven't surfaced in three decades. She reports on the results for Gut Check every Tuesday.Long ago, I found two treasures at a used bookstore: a 1932 reprint of the Fanny Farmer cookbook and an old recipe binder. It's filled with handwritten recipes and magazine clippings from the 1950s through the early 1980

  May 12, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Orange Jell-O for the Diet-Conscious Dearly Departed

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsRobin Wheeler writes for the blog Poppy Mom. After years of making and eating fancy food, Robin is sick of it all. She's returning to the basics: recipes that haven't surfaced in three decades. She reports on the results for Gut Check every Tuesday.This week, I looked at the May issue of Martha Stewart Living and had myself a little giggle fit over elegant gelatin recipes. This meant I'd be making something from my 1977 copy of Amazing Magical Jell-O Desserts for T

  May 26, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Baking the Summer Away

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsAh, summer food. It's the only thing I like about summer. I'd gladly live in a climate that never rose above 60 degrees if it weren't for giving up local produce, cookouts and a good old-fashioned summer cheese bake.What? You don't have the summer tradition of cranking the oven to 350 degrees, boiling some water and suffering a clogged artery-related heat stroke? In 1958, the experts at Good Housekeeping thought that sounded like a fine idea, so they gave us a reci

  June 9, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Dad's Denver Nightmare Brunch

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsMy dad's the guy who nuked some bologna for ten minutes back in the day. He's not much of a cook, but now that he's retired, he's starting to find his way around the kitchen. He can make apple pie and jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon.I'm proud of his progress, and if I could be with him on Father's Day, I would reward him by relieving him of is kitchen duties for brunch.I found the perfect recipe in Better Homes & Gardens' 1971 edition o

  June 16, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Da Gooey Buns, Eh.

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsI'm not here. I'm in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, visiting my in-laws and dining on pasties (with a long A and having nothing to do with stripper attire), fudge and Scandinavian baked goods. These shining examples of regional cuisine aren't just delicious, they're also among the only edible foods in this part of the country.With the largest concentration of Finnish people outside of Europe, the U.P. isn't exactly a flavor destination -- unless you like really hard c

  June 23, 2009

• Throwback of the House: The Bombs Wobbling in Air

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsHalfway through summer vacation, and my daughter is completely sick of my face. I know I'm not much fun for a five-year-old, what with my crappy food and my perpetual hangover. A kid can only take so many viewings of the Ice Age trilogy before she revolts against poor parenting. To distract her from the uprising I know she's planning, I put her to work.With its handy system of indicating age-appropriateness of recipes, 1977's Amazing Magical Jell-O Desserts seemed t

  June 30, 2009

• The Best of Gut Check: Throwback of the House

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia Commons Robin Wheeler writes the blog Poppy Mom. After years of making and eating fancy food, Robin is sick of it all. She's returning to the basics: recipes that haven't surfaced in three decades. She reports on the results for Gut Check every Tuesday.While Gut Check is on vacation this week, check out some of Robin's best work:Friday Franks Make Jesus Cry (March 24, 2009):I have seen Hell. It happened at 4:32 A.M., eight hours after I ate half of a Friday Frank. Suffic

  July 7, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Hot in Herre Orange Mallow Refrigerator Pie

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsThis weekend I'm jetting to slightly-less-hot Philadelphia, and I planned to make a vegetable scrapple from a southwestern cookbook.I couldn't do it, though, because scrapple, like haggis, should never be vegetarian. Also, it's hot, and I don't want anything boiling for an hour anywhere near me.Which means that, finally, I get to bust out Cooling Dishes for Hot Weather for some Orange Mallow Refrigerator Pie.Make a graham-cracker crust. Or, if you're like me and tu

  July 14, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Tokyo Turkey Toss

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsMy sense of humor never developed past the age of twelve. Beavis and Butthead will always crack me up. Bodily functions? Hilarious. Cheap innuendo? My favorite. Which is why I cackle every time I come across the 1974 copy of Better Homes and Gardens: The Meat Stretcher Cookbook in my collection.Heh. I said "meat."So much giggling to be had in a book about meat stretching. But the killer? The Tokyo Turkey Toss. Because, oh my God, it could either be a euphemism for

  July 21, 2009

• Throwback of the House: The Pickle Stretcher Salad Is Not Funny

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsNo one can beat a joke dead into the dirt like I can. Since last week's meat-stretching edition of Throwback, my brain has been on a giant innuendo feedback loop. You know what cracked me up? Pickle Stretcher!Oh, the hilarity of the Pickle Stretcher Salad recipe in 1969's Salads Cookbook! Over 500 salad recipes, and not a one contains fresh vegetables!That's an exaggeration. I'm sure some of the recipes are more in line with the fresh vegetable concoctions that mea

  July 28, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Uncool Vienna-Sausage Shortcake

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsWhen I was in fourth grade, I loved Vienna Sausages and took them in my lunch to school several times a week. I also liked Laura Branigan and Tic Tac Dough, so what the hell did I know?I can't remember the last time I had Vienna Sausages, or when I realized that gelatin-packed canned meat isn't the best food choice. Leave it to those jackasses at Good Housekeeping to bring the Vienna Sausages back into my world with their 1967 Keep Cool Cookbook.There is nothing "co

  August 4, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Sea Pie Guarantees You'll Die Alone

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsThere's nothing wrong with being alone, according to The Solo Chef, published in 1981 by Conran's. What the hell does a corporation that billed itself as "America's busiest home furnishing store" know about being alone?They knew that "...no matter how many benefits arise from solitary living, eating well is rarely one of them." Because solo simpletons tend to think cooking for one is "more difficult than finding a worthwhile restaurant you can afford and feel comfor

  August 11, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Reel Him in With Cheemato Soufflé

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsHave you been despondent since last week's post? Worried about eating sea pie and dying alone? It's time to find you a man with 1952's Date Bait: The Younger Set's Picture Cook Book by Robert H. Loeb, Jr., which was loaned to me by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp.I don't have to bait a date. My husband Brian and I will mark ten years of wedded bliss in a few weeks. I didn't even have to make a Cheemato Soufflé to win his heart.Pasta and putting out did the trick

  August 18, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Jellied Chicken, or Blenders Aren't Just for Drinks

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsThrowback of the House - Now on Mondays!Good old Betty Sullivan. She was a 1965 Superwoman. Not only did she manage to make three squares a day for her six kids and husband, but she also maintained a busy career heading the test kitchen at Hamilton Beach. With so much happening in her go-go life, Betty somehow still had the focus to write The Blender Way to Better Cooking -- 200 pages of recipes, all requiring a blender.I think Betty was probably mixing some pretty

  August 24, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Childhood Memories, Destroyed by Pyrex

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia Commons​Even the most hardcore food snob has that one processed food that she just can't shake. For me, it's pimento cheese. These days, I usually make my own with Scott Peacock's gussied-up recipe, but a few times a year I need the processed-orange-crap-in-a-deli-tub cheese from my childhood.Thanks to Pyrex Prize Recipes, I'm over it. With its Salmon Rice Casserole recipe, Pyrex hasn't just turned me against my beloved pimento cheese, but I don't think I'll be able to

  August 31, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Hunger's the Best Sauce for Reuben Chowder

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsA special Tuesday edition of Throwback...You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry. It's a horrible sight to behold. Although I have enough body fat to keep me alive in the wild for the better part of a month, if I go an hour past mealtime without a feeding, there's hell to pay.My loved ones have seen the wrath of the fat, hungry food writer, and they work to keep the beast at bay, which probably explains why I'm usually not hungry when I make my Throwback recipes. Or a

  September 8, 2009

• Throwback of the House: A Study in Contrasts with Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsWhen my friend Kelly gave me her copy of 1968's Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Cookbook, I thought it might be hard to find a bad recipe in a book published by the company that made New York hot dogs famous. Then I saw the cover, illustrated with a photo of a glass of wine and a crown roast made of hot dogs. Even classics can bring the suck.The Nathan's book swings from hot-dog delights to nightmares, encompassing the best and worst of human creativity.

  September 14, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Jolly-O Cheap Eats from Merry Olde England

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsA few months ago, I introduced you to one of my favorite people in the world, my British pal Sally. This week, I got a care package from the U.K.: two cookbooks from Sally's mom's collection, copyright 1962. They're weathered with use, which I love, and full of notes from Sally about which recipes her mom used to make. She even left some clipped magazine recipes hidden among the pages.Sally's mom, Gill, was classmates with Mick Jagger at the London School of Economi

  October 5, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Triple Play Warmer Is Not So Hot

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia CommonsSo sue me. I'm not a baseball fan, so the irony of making a dish called Triple Play Warmer after the Cardinals lost their second game to the Dodgers was lost on me. All I knew was it was a cold and rainy night and I could use some warming.The master of all advertising cookbooks, A Campbell's Cookbook: Cooking with Soup, spawned this recipe. I have the 1976 edition, the thirteenth printing. That's a hell of a lot of recipes with canned soup, and they can't all be win

  October 12, 2009

• Throwback of the House: Holiday Binging with Weight Watchers' Maine Pumpkin Pudding

  Todd Ehlers, Wikimedia Commons​Who did Weight Watchers in the 1980s? I did, in 1985, when I was 13 years old. Yes, that's insane. I was a little chubby, but I probably would have run it off while playing softball.I did lose weight. It lasted until about a week after I stopped the program. Having read 1977's 400-page hardcover tome, Weight Watchers International Recipes, I've gained an understanding of why the weight came back: When you eat nothing but horrible shit for a year, you go a little

  November 16, 2009