Betty Lives!

Dr. Martin’s Mix

Festive Onions

Spinach Surprise

The I Hate to Cook Book

Peg Bracken

Drawings by Hilary Knight

1960

There are people in my life who I wish I had met when I was younger. Younger being more a state of mind than an accumulation of years in this circumstance. By the time I knew Amy and Melissa one of them was just married, one of them was about to not-be-married any more, and my own irresponsible single life was winding down to its happy but relatively sedate close. We met during our years at Saveur magazine (although Amy was technically with Garden Design) and sadly did not become really close until just before I left. But since that time we are tightly bound. We have celebrated on the occasion of three relocations, the arrival of four children, at least five new jobs and one unbelievably fabulous wedding. And when we are together it is pure fun and craziness, I can picture the hell we would have raised together if we had only known each other years earlier. Amy’s mother was the FIRST PERSON to write me a letter of support when I started this blog and last week she sent me Peg Bracken’s book that she bought at a sale near her home in Ohio.

There are many things about this book that excite me. In 1960 for a woman to admit that she hated to cook was bad enough, but to write an entire cookbook based on the premise that there were others had to have been pure social suicide! And can Peg Bracken write! She is so witty and such a joy to read, and I’m saying this as a person who LOVES to cook. Also, the drawings are by Hilary Knight, of Eloise fame. What’s cool is that I have a different vintage cookbook also drawn by Knight! Finally, even if you buy this book because you loathe cooking, some of the recipes are awesome.

Dr. Martin’s Mix is called such because “Dr. Martin puts the lid on and lets it simmer at the lowest possible heat while he goes out and sets a fracture. When he comes back in about an hour, his dinner is ready.” It, in this case is 1/1/2 lbs pork sausage, browned, to which is added green pepper, scallions, celery, chicken stock, raw rice, Worcestershire sauce and salt. The only two changes I made were to use brown rice, which I’m sure Ms Bracken did not intend, and to add some ketchup at the end. I had to add the ketchup because the sausage I used had WAY too much fennel, in that up-your-nose-fennel smell of a New York City street fair kind of way. I would make this again in a heartbeat, using a different kind of sausage (maybe one of those lovely chicken ones?). It was a tasty, filling meal-in-a-pot that took no time to prep.

The Spinach Surprise, as I prepared it, did not seem to contain much of a surprise. The spinach is cooked in butter with chopped onions and finished with sour cream. The recipe calls for one package of frozen spinach and I have no idea what this meant in 1960. In 2008 that means a 9-oz package which is hardly enough for 4 servings. For this reason, I did not add the entire 1/2 cup of sour cream called for. But here’s the surprise: at the last minute you add a teaspoon of vinegar! I was wary about doing this, I had visions of curdled cream and sour greens but lo and behold the vinegar was a great addition. For lack of a better word it actually made the spinach taste more spinach-y. I am SO on this little trick!

The Festive Onions are supposed to be for a potluck according to Peg Bracken, but I thought some sweet onions would be nice with the sausage mix. The recipe is ridiculously simple: slow cook sliced onions in butter on the stovetop, add a custard made from 2 eggs, 1 cup cream, sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 15 minutes. I used a giant Vidalia onion and it turned out splendily. Doug declared it to be the best of the three recipes, I personally liked the trio together, Nicky of course wouldn’t eat the onions because they were white, but net/net I loved it all.

This meal and post are dedicated to Susan, who loved to cook, and all her friends in Ohio who honor her memory.