Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I'm a "Maddict," addicted to the show "Mad Men." Tonight, AMC is starting a weekly marathon, with Season 1, and next Monday, Season 2, and the week after that Season 3, until we finally get our "fix" with the new season.

Just for fun, think of some food that would go with the show.

Two categories; the time was the early sixties, so food that was popular then (creamed tuna on toast?) and they drank LOTS of manhattans and scotch - neat.

The characters or the actors - the lead actor is Jon Hamm.

I've never watched the show, but I'm sort of a food history buff. Lighting food on fire was big in the sixties (I have a recipe for pineapple lobster boats en flambe, if you're interested). So was French food -- either from scratch ala Julia, or faked from golden cream of mushroom soup ala Campbell's. Fondue had its first American heyday. Desserts with booze (like grasshopper pie) were big. Anything Amandine was sure to swankify one's dinner party. Tomato aspics were still going strong. And if you really really wanted to impress, Beef Wellington was surely in order.

Add some jazz albums on the hi-fi and tie on one of those useless chiffon approns, and you'll be all set.

Of course, the health food movement was getting started (again), but I'm not getting that vibe from the stills I've seen of "Madmen." The costuming seems to be saying Beef Wellington and Grand Marnier Souffle.

Or on the simpler side, how about a nice batch of rum balls?

A Green Jello mold with Carrots and Celery inside served with Miracle Whip.

E-Gads!

No suggestions, just a link to food of the period:

http://lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

We did a dinner in my cooking club using an old cookbook from the 60's. We made tuna pinwheels (tuna salad on white bread that you mush in to a rectangle, rolled jelly roll style then baked), cubes of avocado dipped in ranch dressing then rolled in crushed potato chips, whiskey sours, a ham loaf and some kind of cake with canned pineapple. And it was all pretty tasty!

Mary