Wow!  Some fun pictures this week!  This is the first part of a two-part Mid-Century Menu from the fun weekend when Sara in AZ and her husband Mike visited.  You can check out the pictures from our meet-up at Rosie’s Diner with Sablemable (Jan) here. 

I had originally planned to have a huge, deluxe Mid-Century Menu dinner when Sara visited, but as we realized her time here was going to be extremely limited, we had to adapt. Rosie’s Diner was a great compromise, but I had still planned to have a little Mid-Century spread for when we returned from the meet-up.  Sadly, that also didn’t work out since we got back so late, but we were able to have some cocktails, some snacks and some Mexican Macaroni Casserole.  But that will have to wait for next time.

This time we have Lindsey Club Cheese, which was the snack that we decided to have with our cocktails. We got the recipe from The Second Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places, which is a spectacular mid-century cookbook.  In fact, I might say that it is one of my favorite cookbooks of all time.  This fabulous book contains actual recipes used by restaurants across the US in the late 1950’s.  The premise of the book is that you can leave it in your trusty Ford on your cross-country journeys to help you decide where to eat.  And when you get back home you can make recipes from your favorite places in your own kitchen.  But, as cute as that idea is, it isn’t even the best part of the book.

Every recipe is accompanied by original art from local artists depicting the restaurant that the recipe is from.  And the art is AMAZING.  I stared at this book for hours after I got it.  Some of the art is traditional, some abstract, but it is all mid-century awesome. I must say, the book really is a treasury.

But, back to the food. We decided on Lindsey Club Cheese because it was a little weird, but at the same time seemed like it would be good with cocktails.  Also, my mom makes a similar cheese ball at Christmas from a recipe my grandmother got out of the Republican Woman’s Cookbook that was published in the 1950’s.

That’s right, the Republican Woman’s Cookbook.

Annnnyway, I thought if a similar recipe was good enough for a bunch of Republican housewives, we couldn’t go wrong.  I mean, those ladies knew how to drink cocktails.

The ham was for the Mexican Casserole.  Trust me, it’s a pretty hilarious recipe.

Assisting with the Menu, the ever-adorable Sara.

Chopped olives and a green pepper.  It is going to be some cheese log.

Squeezing the liquid out of the chopped veggies. At there was a lot!

By this time, the cocktails had been made.  The pressure to finish the cheese was on!

Everything thrown in the food processor. Running out of time!

Finally finished!  I jammed it into a Pyrex margarine tub because it totally wasn’t going to form up into a log.  And it was the color of putty.  And it didn’t smell the greatest.  But we had cocktails and Tom put on a great record, so we were all game to try it.

The taste-test series:

“So guys, how is it?”

Overall, the reactions were positive.  “Good.”  “Not bad.” “Kind of bland.” (I think the last was Tom) I took a taste, and it was pretty good. The olive taste was a little overpowering for me, but I think it was a good munchie to make with cocktails.

The Verdict:  Good!

Come back next week for Mexican Macaroni!  With ham!