The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sixties Cookbook (12 page)

1 bay leaf

⅓ cup heavy cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1.
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir well. Add the broth, the tomatoes and their juices, and the bay leaf. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, until the celery is very tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.

2.
In batches, transfer the soup to a blender and puree. Return to the saucepan and stir in the cream. Reheat, but do not boil. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Mmm, Mmm . . . Art

Andy Warhol’s original
Campbell’s Soup Cans
was a work of art consisting of thirty-two individual 20-by-16-inch canvases each displaying a realistic painting of each of the varieties of soup Campbell’s sold in the early Sixties. Its premiere in 1962 marked Warhol’s first one-man gallery debut, the introduction of pop art to the West Coast, and a sea of outrage from the art world, which dismissed it as vulgar and common. The controversy solidified Warhol’s celebrity.

But why soup cans? Was it a deliberate nod to the “nothingness” movement of the time? A crass embrace of commercialism from the man who correctly predicted: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”? Or maybe it was just as his fellow pop artist and friend Robert Indiana believed, “The reason he painted soup cans is that he liked soup.”

The wily artist famously known for repeatedly changing stories about himself to confuse interviewers never gave a single answer. He admitted he did like Campbell’s soup, claimed to have drank a can a day for lunch for twenty years, and stated it was a random choice, just something he saw every day.

However, chefs-turned-psychologists that we are, we think we’ve discovered the answer: it was because of his mother. In 1985, Warhol told an interviewer from London’s
Face
magazine that his mother used to cut tin flowers out of soup and fruit cans and sell them for extra money concluding, “that’s the reason why I did my first tin-can paintings.”

True or not, since Campbell’s boasted four out of every five cans of soup sold in the U.S. during Warhol’s childhood, and he admitted a penchant for the tomato variety especially, we think his early culinary experiences and watching his crafty mother shaped his subconscious. Good Food + Loving Mama = Art. We knew it.

DATE NUT BREAD AND CREAM CHEESE SANDWICHES

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

With the natural sweetness of dates in every bite, date nut bread is a sneaky way to get kids to eat fruit without their knowing it. These dainty sandwiches were considered very classy fare, and all of the best luncheon places served them. If you don’t want to make a sandwich, you can just cut a slab off the loaf and eat it with a cold glass of milk . . . or an Old-Fashioned. We won’t tell your kids.

1½ cups pitted and chopped dates (see Note on
page 66
)

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, plus room temperature butter for the pan

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan

1½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1.
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter an 8½-by-4½-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom of the pan with waxed paper. Dust the inside of the pan with flour and tap out the excess.

2.
Bring ¾ cup water, the dates, and butter to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Pour into a medium bowl. Let stand, stirring often, until tepid, about 30 minutes. Transfer about ½ cup of the date
mixture (including the soaking liquid) to a blender and process into a puree, adding more of the soaking liquid as needed. Stir the puree into the remaining date mixture. Add the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla and whisk well.

3.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda together into a medium bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the date mixture, and stir with a spoon just until combined. Fold in the walnuts. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

4.
Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out without any clinging batter, about 55 minutes. Transfer to a wire cake rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Unmold onto the rack, remove the waxed paper, and turn right side up. Let cool completely.

5.
Cut the loaf into 10 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise. Spread a pair of halves with cream cheese and sandwich them together. (The sandwiches can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 1 day. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.) Serve at room temperature.

NOTE:
For convenience, buy chopped dates. If you prefer to chop them yourself, use oiled scissors to snip them into ½ inch or smaller pieces. Do not try to do the job with a blender or food processor, or you will end with a gummy ball of dates.

Ground Beef by Any Other Name . . .

Sloppy Joes might have more regional nicknames than any other food. In the Midwest they’re called Yip Yips or Yum Yums. Other monikers include Dynamites, Slushburgers, Steamers, Taverns, Wimpies, and Hot Tamales. Our all time favorite name? Manwich, the brand name of canned Sloppy Joe introduced by Hunt’s in 1969. However, in northern New Jersey, a Sloppy Joe is something else entirely—a triple decker sandwich with sliced meat, coleslaw, and Russian dressing.

SLOPPY JOES

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

A staple of the Sixties school lunchroom, Sloppy Joes are messy, but satisfying. If you’ve only ever eaten it from the can, your mom is younger than our moms. Do yourself a favor and make it from scratch.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 medium celery rib, chopped

½ small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1¾ pounds ground round (85% lean)

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

½ cup tomato ketchup

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 hamburger buns, toasted

1.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and green pepper and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the ground round and cook, stirring occasionally, breaking up the meat with the side of the spoon, until the meat loses its raw look, about 10 minutes. Drain off the fat in the skillet.

2.
Stir in the tomato sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, vinegar, and brown sugar and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.

3.
Divide the mixture evenly among the buns and serve hot.

Housewife Helper