Unlimited Vegetables

Between the Vincent Price Cookalong and the Meat/Gelatin Guest Post extraordinaire, I almost forgot that we are supposed to be right smack dab in the middle of a full-blown overview of the Retro WW Rules. I apologize if it seemed I had lost my way. I think we are back on track now.

For those keeping score, we are now onto Rule #6 of the Retro Weight Watchers program guidelines overview. And I can't even contain my excitement about this one...

RULE #6 - Unlimited Vegetables. You may eat all you want of the following vegetables:

asparagus

broccoli

cabbage

cauliflower

celery

cucumber

endive

escarole

peppers

kohlrabi

lettuce

mung bean sprouts

mushrooms

pickles

pimentos

radishes

rhubarb

sauerkraut

spinach

squash (green)

string beans

water cress

I'm sorry. But when someone tells me I can "EAT ALL I WANT" of something, I just get really REALLY happy. I don't even care what it is. For example -- just the other night, I ate 2 entire bunches of celery just because I could. I am not even kidding. I have been known to polish off an entire jar of kosher pickles in one sitting. Seriously. Two-pound bag of frozen broccoli? Bring it. Gigantic vat of french green beans? No problem.

I am what the experts call a "volume eater". That is a label I wear with pride.

So my love for vegetables comes in really handy. In fact, one time I even wrote a blog post about my undying love for celery. Luckily my body is well-trained and can handle mass quantities of cruciferous vegetables and soluble fiber without any negative consequences. If you cannot say the same for yourself, I would recommend you tread lightly when it comes to this rule. It takes time to work up to the super-human level of digestive prowess which I have achieved.

To celebrate the joy of unlimited vegetable consumption, I made myself a heaping bowl of bean sprout soup today. You know, it's just chicken broth mixed with a can of bean sprouts. What's that you say? Oh you don't think that sounds very good?

COME ON! IT'S FREAKING UNLIMITED, PEOPLE!!!! 

YOU CAN EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!! 
SUCK IT DOWN!!!!

Sorry. I got crazy excited for a second there. Anyway...Here is a super appetizing picture of my Bean Sprout Soup. You should totally try it!

That's a full pound of sprouts, baby.

I'm curious....What's your favorite "unlimited vegetable" on the list, and how will you prepare it this week?

The Vincent Price Halloween Cookalong!

'Twas the night before Halloween. And I was kickin' it old school with half a chicken fryer, a bottle of Angostura bitters and some classic horror cinema.

Yes, friends. Thanks to my pal Jenny over at Silver Screen Suppers, my Halloween Eve was spent preparing for the Vincent Price Halloween Cookalong!

Did you know Vincent Price was a culinary master as well as a creepy movie star extraordinaire? Well, now you do! And I was invited to prepare a dish from the twisted mind of this charming superstar, and serve it up for my Halloween dinner. Then reveal it to the world, right here on my blog -- TODAY!

My assignment for this blogging/cooking challenge was pretty easy: Vincent Price's Chinese Chicken

The recipe comes from an advertisement Vincent did for Angostura Aromatic Bitters from 1971. And it sounded pretty good, actually.

It called for 6 chicken fryer halves, but I decided to go with just one. Because the thought of six raw chicken fryer halves made me almost throw up a little bit. Honestly - can you imagine? What the Hell was I supposed to do with that much chicken carcass?

One was bad enough...

*mimi shudders in horror*

I salted and garlic rubbed the poor little guy and then moved onto the marinade.

It was a tangy combo of tomato sauce, pineapple juice, grated onions, butter, and of course -- aromatic bitters. I boiled it and brushed it all over that creepy little chicken body. Then into the oven he went. For an hour.

FYI--This sauce was delish!

Vincent recommended I sip on a "New Fashioned" cocktail while I waited. And really. Who am I to argue with Vincent Price for Heaven's sake?

So the "New Fashioned" is a fancy drink containing a sugar cube, some club soda, whiskey, a twist of lemon, a cherry and of course -- aromatic bitters. On the rocks. Smooth.

As I sipped my cocktail and cued up my movie choice for the evening, I suddenly became very disappointed that I never sent away for the "FREE COOKBOOK" which is referenced in the advertisement. I certainly could have used those mysterious 82 recipes. That "Authentic Chutney" would have gone great with this. Dammit. I've never been good at planning ahead.

Anyway -- Here is my Chinese Chicken in full glory. I served it with some quinoa and broccoli on the side. I'm sure Mr. Price would have preferred a nice fried rice or something, but I just couldn't make that happen. Whatever. Take it or leave it.

I love how it looks all bloody and murderous

We actually really enjoyed the chicken. We sliced it up and watched The House on Haunted Hill. In the dark with candles lit. We even dressed up as our favorite characters. It was a whole big thing.

I was Annabelle. Of course.

Sometimes you just gotta pick a theme and go wild with it. Am I right?  HAPPY BELATED HALLOWEEN!

I have to warn you...this blogging challenge is really freaking huge! Seriously, this thing is WORLDWIDE, people! But if you have some time, take a tour through the internet of my blogger buddies who also celebrated their Halloween in Vincent Price Style, and lived to tell about it:

Brian of Caker Cooking – Fish Fillets Nord Zee

Cathy of Battenburg Belle – Deviled Shrimp and Rice

Sally of My Custard Pie – Deviled Rib Bones

Ruth of Mid Century Menu – Unwealthy Wellington

Angela of Glamorous Glutton – Steak Moutarde Flambe

Lauren of The Past on a Plate – Ayrshire Poacher’s Roll

Emily of Dinner is Served! 1972 - Beef Hearts Stewed

Carol of Craftypants Carol – Deviled Crab

Erica of Retrorecipe – Cucumber Crocodile and Melon Monster

Susie of Bittersweet Susie – Carolina Deviled Clam
Please go visit Silver Screen Suppers for a complete rundown of everyone who participated in this fun and freaky Vincent Price Halloween Cookalong. And a GREAT BIG SPOOKY shout-out to Jenny (the author of Silver Screen Suppers Blog) who organized the entire thing and welcomed us all into the Inscrutably Delicious world of Vincent Price Cooking!

Signing off with a .......Mwaaahhh Haaaaa Haaaaaaaa Haaaaaa (Vincent Price demonic laugh)

One Brave Follower...

One day, on Facebook, I begged asked for volunteers to do a guest post for my very special meat & gelatin recipe from 1978 - and out of HUNDREDS of followers, only one brave lady stepped forward. 

My dearest Cynthia G. -- you are a true Retro WW warrior and a hero. I salute you. I am proud to call you my Facebook friend and Retro WW Soul Sister.

The Recipe:

Chicken Sandwich Loaf!

The Source:

The Guest Post:

Isn't this beautiful? So exciting to prepare a tasty, visually appealing Weight Watchers recipe for Mimi!

Oops, sorry gals. These gorgeous vegetables would be in a 2012 Weight Watchers recipe...

This is 1972:The Retro Weight Watchers Experiment. You don't really expect colorful, do you?

Here are the ingredients for Chicken Sandwich Loaf, submitted by Donna Naugle in 1978. Clearly Donna was half-starved to come up with a recipe with these ingredients:

First, in keeping with the bland and colorless theme, I poached the chicken breast in water. No low fat spray, olive oil, butter. Just water. Amazingly enough, the chicken had it's own fresh, sweet taste. Let's see if we can change that.

The next step was to sprinkle the Knox gelatin over 1/2 cup water until soft.

Easy enough...

Now we're getting creative. I couldn't find onion bouillon at any of my local grocery stores, and Lipton Onion Soup mix contained actual pieces of actual dehydrated onions, and sugar, and flavor, so I rebelled a bit and used two chicken bouillon cubes instead of one.

Hypertension in overweight individuals was not apparently a concern in 1972.

Now for the really spooky part of this recipe! Here we have a tender, nicely cooked and naturally flavorful chicken breast. Today we would eat it as is. In 1972, we do something completely different: BLENDERIZE it.

Here I'm pouring the chicken bouillon-plain gelatin concoction into the blender with the poached chicken....
.

 3...2...1...

BLENDERIZE!

And now I am pouring the glop into my vintage gelatin mold. (Mom made many a lime gelatin with cottage cheese and pineapple in this!)

Looks like hummus; smells like the chicken sandwich meat you buy in the deli.

Well, there it is in all it's glory. Now to chill it. And eat it.

Impressions: Color is underwhelming and not at all appealing, especially when I took my fork and attempted to pick off a bite. Rubbery, but not tough. I finally pegged what it reminded me of.   Have you ever had Hormel's canned chicken spread? THAT'S what it tastes like, only low fat. Rubbery, low fat, congealed Hormel's canned chicken spread. 

I would question the perversion of a decent chicken breast into a bouncy, pale gelatin, but this recipe IS from 1972, and we all know what sort of debauched gelatin-based cookery went on back then.

 

Stick a fork in it. It's DONE!

Meat FAIL

I told you I was going to struggle with this damn MEAT rule.

OK. So it has taken me over a month to summon up the courage to post something about meat.

And I am now here to tell you that I have officially "chickened out" -- no pun intended. OK. Major pun intended.

After a month of screwing around, I am happy to report that I have found a poor sucker brave and wonderful person to do a guest post for my Retro WW meat recipe! Now I don't have to do it! Hooray!

The recipe our guest poster will be making is a little treasure from 1978 called "Chicken Sandwich Loaf", and it was inspired by one of my favorite Weight Watchers Icons of all time.

The One. The Only...

Her confidence literally gives me goosebumps.

 (source: askflorine.com)

FLORINE MARK!!!! I love this woman. Everytime she walks into a room, I imagine a horn section following her around just to announce her entrance with a "TA-DA!!!" She is classy and coiffed and professional. Florine is one of the leading WW Franchise Owners in Weight Watchers history. She talks the talk and walks the walk.

Get ready for a Florine-inspired meat & gelatin combo that will make your hair curl and your butt clench. Stay tuned...

Also--I am very excited to be participating in yet another Retro Blogging Challenge. And this one has a HALLOWEEN THEME! Later this month.....

Oh yeah. It's a Vincent Price Cookalong, baby! My friend Jenny over at Silver Screen Suppers has organized a creepy & crazy blogging challenge involving all recipes from Retro Vincent Price Cookbooks. Who knew this could even be a thing? Let me tell you...This challenge is HUGE. And awesome. In fact, Vincent Price's freaking daughter is even going to participate. I KNOW, RIGHT!?!?

And since my assigned VPC recipe for the challenge involves Chicken. I guess we will be sticking with the meat & poultry thing a bit longer. More meat. More fun. More retro love.


And to think, I was dreading this meat chapter.

Meat and Poultry

I don't want to write this post. I don't want to do this rule. I don't want to make these recipes.

But I have to.

RULE #5 - MEAT & POULTRY 

Select a maximum of 5 weekly meat meals (luncheon or dinner) from Group A (Chicken, Turkey, Pheasant, Organ Meats, and Rabbit) and/or select a maximum of 3 weekly meat meals from Group B (Beef, Frankfurters, Lamb) 

Portion control is KEY here. For luncheon, 4 ounces of cooked meat may be selected. For dinner, 6 ounces is permitted. It is advised that you weigh your portion. I repeat. WEIGH YOUR PORTION. Do not screw around with this.

Remove all visible fat. Broil, boil, bake or roast ONLY. And for the love of all that is holy --- NO MEAT AT BREAKFAST!

Oh - and lest we forget. Liver is REQUIRED once per week. So figure out when you are gonna fit that into your repertoire.

If I had my druthers, I would completely skip this chapter. I would be perfectly happy without the meat. Without the liver. Without the frankfurters. But - since it is the longest chapter in the book (40 pages), I assume this is an important rule. So onward we go...

As I work up the courage to prepare my next meaty recipe, please enjoy a few Retro WW meat photos.

Why can't we just grill up a nice chicken breast on the Retro WW Program? Why not just a simple frankfurter on a bun? Why must we do horrifying, traumatic things to our meat? I will never understand this.

We may need more than one week to explore this rule. Just sayin'.

Knoxapocalypse II - The Sequel

In a world...(Note: it works best if you say this part in the voice of  legendary movie voiceover guy Don LaFontaine, so go ahead and start over)...IN A WORLD where gel cookery is a competitive bloodsport, six retro food bloggers challenged each other to a full-blown gelatin recipe dare. The stakes were high (not really), and the pressure was almost unbearable (this is a slight exaggeration).

The Bloggers (Erica, Emily, Ruth, Brian, Susie, Jenny and of course - yours truly, Mimi) all submitted a recipe. But not just any recipe. Oh no. It had to be creative, crazy and of course...containing GELATIN. Then they randomly swapped recipes, and got to work. (OK--you can stop with the voice now)

My assignment:   Molded Avocado and Tuna (Courtesy of Brian at Caker Cooking)

Well my friends, it should come as no surprise to you that I am not a stranger to Tuna Molds. As a Retro WW Gal, tuna is my middle name. And FYI - it is also not my first time at the double-decker gelatin mold rodeo. Remember that time I vlogged about it? So yeah. I was feeling pretty confident going into this challenge.


But here's the catch: I have never made a recipe from the Gel Cookery "Bible". ..Or as I like to call it - "The Big Show". That's right. My recipe challenge comes from The SACRED Knox On-Camera Recipes: A completely new guide to Gel-Cookery, 1961. So I knew right away, I better not screw it up, or else the Goddesses of Gelatin would curse my copper molds forever.

Since I was already familiar with the process of making a double decker gelatin mold, I knew I would need to set aside a nice long chunk of time to complete my challenge. Like 8-10 hours. No shit. By the way, it amazes me to think about the women who actually prepared this type of food on the reg. How did they have so much time on their hands? How did they do anything else?

I digress.

So--long story short. The top layer goes in first. So it looks like the bottom layer now. But, you know. You're going to flip it over later. So this will all make sense at the end.

Mayo, Sour Cream and Avocado. Hail to FAT!

The tricky part of this whole project is TIMING. The consistency of the gelatin must be JUST RIGHT or else it all falls apart. So when you add the bottom layer (It will look like the top layer now. But you get it), the top layer can't be completely firm, but it also can't be too soft either. So you find yourself checking the mold 20 or so times to make sure it is exactly the right moment before you pour in the next layer.

You are like some crazy OCD mental patient in a fancy apron, jumping up every five minutes, running to the fridge and sticking your finger in the gelatin to test the firmness. It really is bizarre.

Tuna and Veggies - Suspended in Gel

So now you have both layers chilling until completely firm. My advice? Go out for cocktails. Go shopping. Go to bed. Otherwise you will just obsess over the damn thing.

Now comes my favorite part. No seriously. It is one of my favorite things on Earth to do. After hours and hours of waiting. And then a few more hours after that...You get to UNMOLD.

Like a BOSS

I soak mine in a little lukewarm water, run a knife around the edges and then flip it over onto a plate. The moment of release when it makes that sound -- THWAPPPHH --- is quite possibly the greatest triumph any human being can experience.

Look at it.

NAILED IT!

No really look at it.

Really get in there

I hate the thought of even slicing it up and eating it. To me, a gelatin mold is more a work of art than an edible meal. But a major part of this challenge is actually taking a taste, and reporting our results.

So I gingerly took a small bite. And it wasn't too bad. So I ate some more. Maybe 3 or 4 big bites. It was cool and refreshing. It was creamy and crunchy. A perfect balance. I took two more bites. And then I instantly got heartburn. Like full-on GERD. Oh boy, my body did not like this combo one little bit. Ooof.

Anyone have a Prilosec handy?

When my husband snapped this picture, his exact words were, "Congratulations on another disgusting, inedible slab of crap, honey!"

So there it is. Another masterpiece. Or slab of crap. Whatever you want to call it. Either way, I am glad it is over. Until next time....I ask myself will there be a Knoxapocalypse III - The Trilogy??? Only time will tell.

If you have a hankering for some more gelatin, and you want to keep this party going, please visit the other bloggers posts to see what they came up with. But I warn you. Tread lightly...You are dealing with the Jello Mafia. It could get ugly.

Emily at Dinner is Served 1972 – Olive Wreath Mold

Erica at Retro Recipe Attempts – Betty Davis’s Mustard Ring

Brian at Caker Cooking – Maple Fluff

Susie at Bittersweet Susie – Melon Mousse - A Retro WW Recipe submitted by ME!!!

Jenny at Silver Screen Suppers  – Turkey In Aspic

Ruth at Mid-Century Menu – Pickle and Pineapple Salad

Five Fish Meals

Well, here it is.

The most talked-about and most notorious rule of the Retro Weight Watchers Plan. If you can make this happen, you are a Retro WW Superhero.

RULE #4: FISH - You must eat a minimum of 5 weekly fish meals (luncheon or dinners). 

This does not preclude your having fish more often, and at breakfast also. 

Follow your Menu Plan,and change frequently.

There are 2 groups (Group A and Group B) to choose from, and you must adjust weights for cooking and bones. But I won't confuse you with all that. Let's just say: you need to eat a TON of fish. So you better get started now.

Can you do it? Can you be a FISH MASTER?

By the way....I need to tell you that I am really excited about the timing of this rule. It coincides perfectly with Labor Day, and I plan to whip up a doozy of a moldy fish dish.

Tuna + Gelatine = PARTY

Come back next Monday when I will reveal my post for the "Knoxapocalypse II Cross Blog Challenge". If you have been a long time follower of this blog, you will recall a few years back when I participated in this crazy gelatin-filled smackdown where me and some of my fellow Retro Food Bloggers challenged eachother to make some really awful jell-o molds. We called it Knoxapocalypse. It was EPIC.

Well. We are doing it again. And it is bigger, bolder, and jigglier.

You are all invited to a Retro Labor Day Gelatin-Encrusted Picnic you will never forget! See you there!