Welcome back to another week of food from behind the scenes of Astronauts Wives Club!!! This is Part II of Episode 9 (you can see Part I here), which was an episode so jam-packed with vintage food I had to split it into two huge posts. This week we have lots of vintage Holiday goodies, including the infamous Bon Appetit Shrimp Christmas tree!

I am happy to bring you some close-ups of this food courtesy of food stylist Emily Marshall, who worked like crazy to make sure that the food from Astronauts Wives Club was the most mid-century it could be!

Borman Launch Party

According to Emily, this Launch went up around the holidays, so even though it wasn’t technically a holiday party, she still tried to give it a festive feel.

Jell-O Salad

This is Emily’s stand-by gelatin salad: Lime gelatin with whipped cream and almonds folded into it and garnished with cottage cheese and pineapple.

Beef Stroganoff Casserole

A classic mid-century dish! The recipe Emily used was a simple one, but I thought I would share with you this recipe for Stroganoff from The Modern Approach to Everyday Cooking from 1966. This is one of Tom’s favorite meals.

Christmas Ham

A classic ham, garnished with fruit! This one is from Honeybaked, but here is a recipe from the book Holiday Smorgasbord from 1960.

Skillet Cornbread

Emily used a mix for this cornbread, but if you are interested in trying a mid-century recipe, here is one from the Homemaker’s Exchange from the Jan, Feb, March 1950 issue.

Frosted Brownies

These yummy brownies were frosted and sprinkled with red sugar! Here is a recipe for brownies from the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook from 1950.

Fruit Plate

These are just sliced oranges “glamorized” by Emily!

Holly Berry Rice Krispies Treats

This is just the standard Rice Krispie Treat recipe, tinted green and with red hots added. She used the same recipe for the Cornflake Wreath, which you will see later on in this post!

Mallow Yams

This recipe was inspired by this ad for “Orange Mallow Yam Yums” from Emily’s Pinterest inspiration board!

Meatloaf

The meatloaf recipe that Emily used was actually her mom’s recipe, and these loaves are covered with BBQ sauce and garnished with some jaunty eggs. But here is a recipe for Stove-Top meatloaves from Campbell’s, if you are interested in trying them!

Nuts and Bolts

These are just Cheerios mixed with parmesan and butter, and then tossed with pretzel rods! Here is a similar recipe that uses Kix cereal from the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook.

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

These were very simple – just cream, cheese and potatoes mixed up and baked.

Believe it or not, this is very close to my grandmother’s (unwritten) recipe for scalloped potatoes – just mix a tablespoon of flour with about a half cup of some milk or cream, and then add in sliced potatoes seasoned with salt and pepper and sliced onions and bake for an hour. Simple and really good!

Stuffed Peppers

These were mostly made for the crew. Emily bought some pre-made dirty rice, then stuffed these peppers with Jambalaya and baked! Sounds like something I am going to try very soon.

Christmas Deviled Eggs

These are just the standard deviled eggs, tinted green for Christmas and garnished with paprika. You can check out the recipe in the post from Episode 2.

Christmas Toy Drive

Counter Shot!

Emily says she was really going for a “wreath” theme here, and really pulled out all the stops to make this a mid-century-tastic holiday party!

Seriously. My dreams! This party makes them all come true.

Christmas Fudge

This is the classic Carnation Fudge, once again, this time with food coloring and mint extract added to some of it.

Fruit Cake

This is a purchased fruit cake (look at all those nuts!!!), but Emily said it actually ended up tasting really good.

If you are interested in vintage fruit cake recipes, you can check out the vintage fruit cake test we did two years ago over the holidays. It was a blast!

Cornflake Wreath

This is just your classic recipe for Rice Krispie Treats, but with cornflakes subbed for the Krispies, added green food coloring and a few red hots them molded in a ring mold. Emily said this was DELICIOUS!

Cupcakes

These cupcakes were store-bought and then frosted by Emily. I think they turned out really cute!

Frosted Pudding Squares

Another one from the Betty Crocker Library! These are the recipe for Pudding Squares, which Emily frosted to look more festive.

Fruit Cocktail Jell-O Wreaths

These adorable little things were actually very easy. They are just plain lime gelatin, molded and then filled with strategically placed fruit cocktail.

Ombre Gelatin

Another gorgeous ombre gelatin! This one had been made weeks before as a test run for the ombre gelatin in another meal, and Emily stored it away for the filming of this episode because she thought it looked Christmas-y.

And, for anyone who is curious, Emily used way more gelatin than normal in all her molds to keep them solid during filming!

Pigs In A Blanket Wreath

These were a request of the Propmaster! This recipe comes from Good Housekeeping’s Hamburger & Hot Dog Book from 1958.

Shrimp Tree!

Here it is! The moment of insanity you have been waiting for! The Bon Appetit Shrimp Tree!

According to Emily, this whole thing started out as a joke in the Art Department. The set decorator printed a picture of the shrimp tree and put it on the production designer’s office door just as a joke for him to come back to one day. Later, unbeknownst to both of them, she made the tree!  Emily said the finished tree was huge, the size of her torso, and really, really heavy.

You can check out the recipe here.

Christmas Eggs

These are just the standard deviled eggs, tinted green for Christmas and garnished with pimento. You can check out the recipe in the post from Episode 2.

Oh, pimento. Is there anything you can’t do?

Whew, so that wraps up Episode 9! A big thanks to Emily Marshall, who was so generous in sharing all her awesomely styled food pictures.

Sadly, last Thursday the final episode of Astronaut Wives Club aired, but you can still look forward to the food from Episode 10 next week, or you can re-read our whole series of posts in the archives!