Happy Birthday Retro WW Experiment!

One year ago today I made a decision that changed my life.

I had a crazy idea. I was snowed in. I really needed a creative outlet.

So I became a blogger.

I will never forget my first post. How fun it was checking back everyday and hoping for followers. I still remember my first official follower. (Thanks Ellen) What a thrill!

Over the past year, I have fallen in & out of love with my blog many, many times - but I am glad we are still together. I have met some incredible people through this experience and have had a lot of fun in the process. So please join me in wishing a very Happy Birthday to the Retro WW Experiment...

Time to blow out the candle!

My 1972 "Raggedy Ann" Birthday Party

So what do you say we break the 1972 Retro WW rules and have a piece of cake? And maybe some potato salad. And ham. Just this once...

My Gorgeous Mom (holding the cake), Grandma, and family getting ready to PARTY!

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my crazy little blogging experiment. I hope you have enjoyed the journey so far. I know I certainly have.

Cheers! And keep on sharing that groovy Retro WW love! There's lots more to come...

The Final Guest Post Entry - Let's Wrap It Up!

Well here we are. The final entry of the Retro WW Guest Post Challenge. How fitting that we are wrapping up this fantastic journey with some delicious hot "wrap ups". Yum. Thanks to everyone who participated in this challenge. You are brave. You are beautiful. Um...You are a little wacky. But that's why I love ya! Please enjoy this last guest post by Jill, and go visit her at www.shrinkingjill.com!

First off, I’d like to thank Mimi for the chance to try one of the retro WW recipes!

My recipe was ‘Hot Wrap Ups’, and since I’m a big fan of lettuce wrap appetizers, the prospect of making the 1972 WW version was enticing:

HOT WRAP UPS

1 cup diced celery

1/2 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped

1/2 cup chicken bouillon

2 tbsp chopped chives

1/4 tsp garlic powder

dash white pepper

4 large lettuce leaves

pickle slices

capers

lime slices

parsley sprigs

Cook celery & mushrooms in bouillon for 5 minutes. Drain, reserving broth. Cool slightly. Combine celery & mushrooms with chives, garlic powder and white pepper. Soak lettuce leaves in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain.

Spoon one fourth of the celery mixture into the center of each leaf. Roll up securely, folding the sides of the leaf over the filling. Secure with toothpicks, if needed. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Garnish with pickle slices on top, capers, sliced lime and parsley. Makes 2 servings, 1 point per serving.

This recipe was super-easy to make - about 15 minutes to prepare plus 10 minutes to bake - and I actually had most of the ingredients hanging around the house:

The only real challenge was getting the lettuce leaves to roll up neatly and keep the filling contained. Seriously, who boils lettuce? Fortunately I had a box of toothpicks at hand to save the day.

In my opinion, boiling the lettuce was a mistake - afterwards the leaves were very soggy and not too appetizing. But after assembling the dish and plating it with the suggested condiments it didn’t look too bad (just very monochromatic!)

So how did it taste? Well, it wasn’t necessarily bad, just really bland. The texture of the boiled and baked lettuce was not good. I tried this dish both with and without condiments and the capers were a nice addition - but when combined with the lime and pickle things got a bit ugly.

I think this recipe has potential, but next time I would use lightly steamed Napa cabbage leaves as a wrapper and would probably add some quinoa and ground bison or pork to the filling for a bit of protein and texture. A little onion wouldn’t hurt either! And the pickles and limes will definitely not make a repeat appearance.

Preparing the filling and just serving it with crisp lettuce (instead of baking it) might approximate the lettuce wrap appetizer at some of the big restaurant chains that always seem to have way more calories than they should!

Either way, it was fun making this recipe and getting a glimpse into Weight Watchers’ groovy past! Thanks Mimi!

The Ultimate Retro WW Guest Post - LIVER LIVES!

All I can say about this next guest post is: BRAVO! My buddy Diane from the WW message boards is quite a gem. She stepped up to the plate and hit a home run with this liver recipe. I have successfully avoided the dreaded "liver rule" during the past year of my Retro WW adventure. But thanks to Diane--the Retro WW Experiment will forever include one fantastic liver dish that will go down in history. Hooray?

If you think the switch to PointsPlus was an ordeal, don't expect any sympathy from the WW'ers who made it to goal in the 70s. The program back then had a lot of crazy notions about weight loss, but the most notorious was the requirement to eat liver once a week. So when Mimi asked for volunteers to help try some crazy retro recipes, I just had to go for the liver - no half measures for me!

Here's the recipe Mimi sent:

Liver and Apple Salad
6 oz. cooked liver, diced
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup canned bean sprouts, drained & rinsed
1/4 medium green pepper, diced
1 medium apple, cored & diced
2 tbsp diced pimiento
1 envelope instant chicken broth & seasoning mix
1 tbsp mayo
1 tsp lemon juice

Mix all ingredients. Chill in bowl. Unmold on a bed of lettuce. Makes 1 dinner serving.

I made it for some game friends for luncheon today, and I have to say, it wasn't half bad. But it wasn't half good, either, so I won't make it again.

I should start out by saying I like some organ meats. I do a giblet gravy. I serve chopped liver and liverwurst at parties. I once made Julia Child's chicken livers in cognac. But this recipe had something far grosser in it: canned bean sprouts. I could not cope with the La Choy stuff I bought, so I subbed them for fresh. That's the only way I adapted the recipe. (Plus, I packed it into a ring mold to be extra fancy.)


The recipe assumes you've already got some cooked liver on your hands. Just on the off chance you don't, here's how you cook them:

1. Rinse the livers well under cold running water
2. Pick them over to remove any pieces of fat or any black or green spots
3. Dry them well and crank up your kitchen exhaust fan to 11 (liver, frankly, smells nasty when it's cooking)
4. Saute in a nonstick pan in a little canola oil, turning frequently until cooked through
5. Chill thoroughly before dicing up

Since I was making this for company, I doubled the recipe. It's really mostly fruit and veg, hiding the liver pretty effectively. The diced-up ingredients looked fine in the bowl, but when I mixed it all together, the colorful apples and veggies got coated with a none-too-lovely brown liver residue. Ew.


I packed the mess into a tinned ring mold well-sprayed with Pam, covered it with plastic and chilled it for a couple of hours. It unmolded very nicely onto a platter, and I served it forth with my 1970s Vera Neumann napkins.


No one got sick. No one had seconds. One friend cleaned his plate, more out of politeness than delight. One friend wouldn't touch it. Their 4-year-old daughter said she wanted to try it, but then she chickened out. My dog's attitude was, "All the more for me!"

Guest Post #11 - Are You Ready For This?

This next guest post is chilling in more ways than one. I have no words to describe it. I can't even think of a clever introduction. Just make sure you read to the very end and pay close attention to the final picture. Look very closely at this salad and you will notice one very frightening detail that will make you question everything you have ever known about bean salads. Allow me to introduce Karen and her 1974 Retro WW Bean & Mushroom Salad experiment...

I was very excited when I received this recipe, mainly because it was a great opportunity to use for the ancient box of Knox gelatin that had been hibernating in my pantry for years. I didn’t even flinch when reading the list of ingredients because although it seemed to be a very odd combination of flavors (green beans? dehydrated onions? artificial sweetener? GELATIN??), I knew that Weight Watchers would never deceive me.

Bean & Mushroom Salad

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin

2 1/2 cups cold water, divided

1 tbsp dehydrated onion flakes

1/2 cup tarragon vinegar

artificial sweetener equal to 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

2 cups whole canned green beans, drained

1/2 cup chopped pimento

1/2 cup sliced canned mushrooms, drained

watercress

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water in saucepan. Stir in onion flakes. Stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves. Stir in remaining water, vinegar, sweetener and salt. Chill until syrupy. Fold in beans, pimento and mushrooms. Turn into a 5-cup mold (or bowl). Chill until firm. Unmold. Garnish with watercress. Makes 4 servings.

The recipe was not hard to prepare. The only surprises I encountered were: 1) the odor from the boiled dried onions and gelatin required the opening of the kitchen window for ventilation, and 2) the resulting sediment sludge:



A less-dedicated Retro WW Recipe Attempter would have stopped the experiment at this point. I was determined to power through and finish the recipe at all costs. Next came the addition of canned vegetables, gently folded into the slightly gelled goo.

After chilling the concoction overnight, the salad was ready to unmold and serve. I invited two friends over for dinner (I decided it was best not to explain the menu before their arrival), and eagerly awaited their reviews.



It was met with mixed reviews. All of us decided that it was not something we ever wished to eat again. That said, it did somewhat resemble three-bean salad, and the flavor was not as horrible as it looked. I would recommend trying this recipe with fresh vegetables and no gelatin.

Thanks Mimi for this opportunity!

The Disappearing Guest Post #10

Enjoy this cool & delightful Retro WW treat from my twitter pal Lydia, because nothing can prepare you for what is coming next. If you think you've seen some scary Retro WW recipes...you ain't seen nothin' yet! But for now, please enjoy this semi-tame and semi-yummy Zesty Cheddar Log before it disappears!

Zesty Cheddar Log (1974)

4 OZ. Cheddar Cheese, grated
1/4 Cup minced celery
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 medium cucumber, scored & sliced

Combine cheese, celery, and Worcestershire in a bowl. Shape into log, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle curry powder in waxed paper. Roll cheese log in curry, coating evenly. Wrap loosely in wax paper. Chill 2 hours. Slice and serve, evenly divided with cucumber slices. Makes 2 luncheon servings.

When Mimi sent me this recipe, I was intrigued and eager to try it out. I imagined Jean Nidetch and a friend eating this after a tennis match or something. The project began with me assembling ingredients. I grated 4 oz of Vermont cheddar cheese, minced some celery to yield 1/4 of a cup, and snapped photo #1.


I combined the cheese and celery with the 1 Tbsp. of Worcestershire sauce. The mixture was very crumbly and did not easily form a log. (I wonder if cheddar in 1974 was softer.) I rolled the log in 2 1/2 tsp of curry powder on a plate.


Now I see that the recipe calls for wax paper, which would've made the rolling easier. The result was a crunchy, definitely zesty, crumbly mess when I tried to cut it. I ate some and then refrigerated it, planning to slice it and serve on scored cucumber slices the next day. In the morning, I searched the fridge for the cheese log and my husband confessed he'd tossed it, unaware of my important assignment!

The cucumber slices made a nice snack sprinkled with salt.

Review: I liked the crunch of the celery, but the curry and Worcestershire flavors were too strong and dissonant. I hope that my hunt for new ways to eat vegetables will bring me some ideas of what else to do with celery and cucumber!

Guest Post #9 - Kiss My Aspic

Have you met my Bloggy BFF, Heidi? She's quite a kick in the kitchen. That's why, when she asked me for a Retro WW Recipe, I have to admit - I didn't hold back on the gross factor. But I knew she could handle it. Check out her fantabulous blog kitschenfeast and you'll see why. Ladies. Hold onto your girdles. I give you: Creamy Luncheon Aspic.

You're Invited.

Nothing does wonders for the waistline like a ladies' luncheon circa '72. Cottage cheese was served 10 ways from Friday at card tables all across the United States. Often with pear halves, always with a green garnish.

When Mimi offered up the recipe for Creamy Luncheon Aspic, I couldn't wait to oblige. In big part because my better half presented me with the present of a lifetime this holiday season: a food processor! Visions of cheddar ale soups and pestos had been dancing in my head -- who knew one of my appliances virgin voyages would include gelatine. And Cottage cheese.

May I present to you -

Creamy Luncheon Aspic

1 envelope knox gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1 1/3 cups cottage cheese
2 tbsp mayo
1 tsp Worcestershire
few drops red hot sauce
Salt

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small saucepan. Place over low heat, stirring constantly until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat. Combine remaining ingredients in blender (or food processor) and puree until smooth. Add to gelatin mixture; mix well. Pour into small ring mold which has been rinsed in cold water. Chill. Unmold and fill center with greens. Makes 2 servings.

I must confess my guess - that the ladies I'd invite over to lunch on this mess-terpiece might not stick around for dessert. They would be, after all, watching their figures.

Thanks, Mimi, for a recipe that really broke the mold! Or, broke me of molding [and gelling]!

If your gag reflex needs some flexing, come visit me at kitschenfeast.blogspot.com - I've been known to induce vomiting from time to time.

Guest Post #8 - Time For Dessert!

When my Twitter pal Carrie asked for a Retro WW dessert recipe for her guest post challenge, I was thrilled. Up 'til now, no one had been brave enough to attempt a dessert. And, trust me, this one is worth the wait. Are you scared? You should be. But we WILL get through this. So pour yourself a cuppa joe, grab a Xanax and enjoy Carrie's "Brownies"...

This dessert was a classic WW attempt at making gelatin and some other random ingredients into "food." Therefore, I thought it deserved a classic WW-style photo — hence, the random props.

Chocolate "Brownie" Dessert (1974)
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/3 cup non fat dry milk
artificial sweetener equal to 1 cup sugar
2 tbsp chocolate extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
red & green food coloring

Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in blender container to soften. Add boiling water; process at medium speed until dissolved. Add remaining ingredients, except food coloring; process at high speed to blend. Pour into an 8x8 square pan. Chill uncovered until firmly set. Makes 4 servings (although, we stretched it to 6). At 4 servings it’s 4 PP per serving; 6 servings makes it 3 points.

I had about half the ingredients in my pantry, and most of the others were easy enough to find, but I will warn anyone attempting this recipe that chocolate extract is not readily available. I had to hit a health food store in my community to locate some. Also, do not make this in a glass pan. The bottom gets quite shiny and unappetizing. I would also recommend not attempting this particular recipe at all. Ever.

I’m going to wager a guess that working with gelatin is akin to working in certain types of clay. There’s an art to it that I’m certainly not looking to master. One of the joys of this particular recipe was the realization that gelatin foams … a lot.

Also, I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that Weight Watchers members in the ‘70s resigned themselves to the fact that their food was going to look horrifying. Personally, I couldn’t get past the gelatinous gray goo that looked something like the beverage Luke Skywalker drinks at the beginning of the original Star Wars movie. I’ve always wondered what that was; now I know.

And yes, I said it was gray. Trust me, I tried for brown by mixing my red and green food coloring (incidentally, the recipe never said when to add the food coloring, so I guessed). It just started turning this putrid shade of lavender, and I admit, I ultimately gave up. After it set, it did darken up a bit, but as you can see from the pictures, it’s definitely not the rich shade of brown one would expect from traditional brownies. I’m guessing this is the reason it was dubbed “brownie” dessert.

All in all, the mixture itself tasted fine — like sugar-free chocolate typically does. But the texture of the fully set product was abysmal. I got through one bite of it, took a second, and had to spit it out. My husband ate the remainder. Then again, he eats week-old, cold Chinese food mixed with mustard and salad dressing without batting an eye. He also renamed the concoction “gray matter.” But bless his heart, he is always appreciative of my efforts: “You’re a provider, honey — meat, beans and gray matter!” (I had served it with barbecue chicken and baked beans.)

It was an adventure, to say the least.

Speaking of adventures, I’m working on blogging more regularly, and I’m currently a Tumblr addict.

If you’re looking for a few laughs with a heaping side of judgment: http://randomactsofdouchebaggery.tumblr.com/

If you’re looking for heart-felt reflections on a quest to start a family: http://ourbabysteps.tumblr.com/

Or just follow my random, stream of consciousness on Twitter @carriepack.