What Would Betty Make?

Sunday night is the season finale of “Mad Men”.  


http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

Brian and I are huge fans of this show, not only for it’s brilliant writing and acting, but also because it's set in Ossining, NY, where we happen to live.  Every time Donald Draper gets on the train to go to the city I think to myself, "I take that train too"!  He goes to his advertising job where he is the Creative Director, and I go to my advertising job where I am not the Creative Director…you can’t have it all I suppose.

Brian and I were talking earlier this week about the show, and he suggested because of my love of Westchester and where we live I should do a “Mad Men” inspired post.  This seemed like a fun idea, so yesterday I decided to do a little 1960’s research to see what I could come up with.

I started by calling my mom to see if any particular dessert of the time stood out to her.  She told me of a strange cake called Watergate, which apparently contains both pistachios and 7-Up.  I was frightened, and happily this cake comes a little further down the timeline than where the show is currently.  In the show JFK was just assassinated, so I was looking for something early ‘60s.  Mom informed me German Chocolate cake (but I made chocolate cake last week), banana splits, and all manner of layered items were popular. Desserts made exclusively of cream and drizzled with toppings seemed to be quite common. I confirmed this with a little research this morning.  Pictured here is a crème caramel I made a while back which certainly meets ‘60’s criteria.

Jell-O was definitely in.  Anything that could be layered and supported by Jell-O, Cool Whip and variations on that theme seemed to be in Vogue.  Every image I found of food from this time has a washed out or day glow appearance to it.  Beautiful, alien and shocking are just a few words I would use to describe it. 

I began to look into Betty Crocker, because Betty is the name of Don’s wife in the show, and because she seemed like the harried housewife’s go to solution to the everyday meal.  Granted, Betty in the show has a cook/maid that takes care of everything for her, but that is beside the point.  I discovered that Betty Crocker, the person, never existed and is a made-up figure created by the now General Mills Corporation as an identity to answer customer questions with a personal touch.  Interesting…Betty Crocker is a lie; a sham and I feel deceived by corporate America and advertising once more…how fitting. http://chnm.gmu.edu/features/sidelights/crocker.html

I turned to Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  It was published in 1961, but is intended for someone with a little more time on his or her hands.  I did find a fitting recipe for an orange mousse served inside the scooped out halves of oranges (which I thought would make an interesting photo), but I’m just not a big enough orange fan to eat orange mousse.  She did lead me down the road to quiche and savory tarts, which are very of the time. I also found reference to several molded desserts such as the Charlotte.  I have made a Charlotte once before.  In this case it was a wonderful raspberry mouse filled dessert with lots of whipped cream, berries and a piped ladyfinger crust. 

The other bit of research I did led me to Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who became the President of the United States after the assassination of JFK.  She had a recipe for lemon squares that was apparently among her favorites. http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/faqs/Recipes/lemon_squares.asp

I too am a fan of lemon bars, and happen to have my grandmother’s recipe for them.  As I went through Grandma Tiede’s recipes I discovered something much more in keeping with my earlier research…an entity known as Pretzel Salad. 

What the heck is that you might ask?  Well, it has pretzels, Cool Whip, Jell-O and it all gets layered together as a dessert.  Perfect!!!  So, that’s just what I decided to make along with a savory leek and Swiss chard tart. 

The tart recipe (not available on the web yet) is from the November 2009 Martha Stewart Living (tip:  thoroughly wash your leeks and Swiss chard to remove the grit), but the Pretzel Salad comes from my family…well, I’m sure they got it from somewhere.  It was certainly fun and scary to make at the same time.  


The recipe is as follows:

2 1/2 Cups of crushed pretzels

1 1/2 Sticks of butter (melted)

3 Tbsp. Brown sugar

Mix all these things together and press into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and then let the crust cool.

1 Cup of sugar

8 oz. Cream cheese

1 tub of Cool Whip

Mix these things together and spread over the cooled crust.

2 small packages of Strawberry Jell-O (not sugar free)

2 Cups of boiling water

16 oz. Frozen strawberries

Mix the Jell-O and boiling water together, and then stir in the strawberries.  Let it begin to set up in the refrigerator, then spread on top of the cream cheese/Cool Whip layer.

Chill for a couple of hours and take to your next family gathering.

That’s it!  How simple can it be…and it’s really yummy, though I have no idea why it’s called a “salad”?  It took me about a half an hour to make it, and it leaves you time for doing whatever else the harried housewife needs to do before her husband gets home.  Maybe you even have time to pour yourself a drink and have an affair before the kids get home from school?   Sounds good to me.  It’s just who I am.