ForcedPerspective

Knudsen Recipes for Greater Food Value

Welcome to the first installment of From the Vault! The Forced Perspective Vault contains volume upon volume of cool old stuff, primarily stuff related to food. In this recurring (I hope) feature, we drag some gems out into the light of day.

Knudsen Recipes for Greater Food Value
Knudsen Dairy Products, The Very Best
produced by Knudsen Creamery Co of California in 1957

A booklet in the grand tradition of books of recipes containing large quantities of the manufacturer's ingredients which are, in this case, pictured on the back cover.

Note the statement, in all-caps, "SOLD AT FOOD STORES." This would be in contrast to delivery to your door, and the booklet emphasizes that the products are still fresh even if you don't get them off your doorstep. And not only fresh, but not at all infectious! They have scientists, you see! OK, they don't say that outright, but the first page touts their quality control and their staff of both scientists and technicians. But rather than emphasize that they're preventing little Bobby from getting typhoid from his morning cereal, they focus on their effort to improve dairy products, and even make new ones! Unfortunately, I can't think of any novel dairy products invented since the fifties.

I stand corrected! Hoop cheese! I was pleased to see this description of what exactly this product is. I had seen references to it in other vintage cookbooks but had not known what it was. Apparently a low sodium fat free cheese. And for being around since the fifties (and possibly before) it doesn't seem to have taken the world by storm. Not even the sodium restricted diet world. The introduction of the Knudsen products in this booklet points out that they serve Southern California from nine plants which makes me wonder if they got the endorsement of the Los Angeles Heart Association because they were local or because the national association wouldn't bite?

And while the caloric content of the hoop cheese is listed in the charts encouraging you to count your calories in order to lose weight, the suggested menus don't include it. But they do suggest substituting sour cream for salad dressing and mayo. And using half-and-half in your coffee. And while Knudsen did distribute nonfat milk (79 calories per glass), they do not list it among their recommendations for reducing. Instead, they plug buttermilk (110 calories) and Gold Star homogenized milk (166 calories) over even homogenized milk ( 151 calories). I wonder why.

Even your everyday menus should contain vast quantities of dairy products.

And while I enjoy the web sites that poke fun at the strange and hideous dishes of yesteryear (though I’m not totally convinced anyone actually made these dishes) I don’t like when they don’t include the recipe!

Banana-Orange Float
2 bananas, peeled
1/2 cup Knudsen Cottage Cheese
2 oranges, peeled and sliced
8 maraschino cherries, halved
1 (3-oz.) package Knudsen Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Knudsen Hampshire Sour Cream
6 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Cut bananas in half lengthwise. Place each half on salad greens. Cover banana tops with cottage cheese. Arrange orange slices on cottage cheese. Decorate with cherry halves. Blend cream cheese, Hampshire Sour Cream, orange juice, rind and sugar. Pour around banana slices and over salad greens. Serves four.

Lima Bean Salad Mix
2 cups cooked baby lima beans
1/2 cup sliced stuffed olives
1/2 cup minced celery
1/2 cup minced pickles
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Knudsen Hampshire Sour Cream
1/4 cup chopped pimiento
Combine beans with remaining ingredients except pimientos and chill 15 to 20 minutes. Serve topped with pimiento bits. Serves 6 to 8.

Both of these recipes seem to not totally match the pictures, so who knows how the pictured dishes were really made.

Do you feel the urge to buy more dairy products yet?

The æons-old battle

The quality is not the best, but I think you get the gist: crows hate seagulls.

Why would you even bring that up?

A reliable rule of thumb: when people accuse others of engaging in some nefarious scheme, or out of the blue aver that they themselves are not engaged in a nefarious scheme, you can count on it that the claimants are engaged in exactly that nefarious scheme. So, clearly, Durex wants to organize “some crazy kind of '60s love-in.”

But the best part is the name

Jesus Chocolate Christ!

You Suck Review

You Suck, Moore. No. I didn’t hate this so much that I stopped reading it, but I would have if I had had anything else to read. The dedication reads “For my readers, by request,” which may be why the whole thing feels rushed or forced or otherwise off-putting. Here's a passage that struck me as particularly egregious on first reading, though it doesn’t grate so badly now (maybe I've just been beaten into submission):

She was enjoying teaching Tommy about the particulars of vampirism, just as she enjoyed teaching him how to do grown-up human things like how to get the power and phone turned on in the loft—it made her feel sophisticated and in charge, and after a series of boyfriends for whom she had been little more than an accoutrement, whose lifestyles she had affected, from heavy-metal anarchists to financial-district yuppies, she liked being the pacesetter for a change.

Really? There was no better way to get that information to the reader than just laying it out there all at once? And do we really care? I suspect that it’s tempting to indulge in this sort of acceleration in a sequel, where you might want to bring the new readers up to speed without boring the readers who remember the character from the previous work, but I remain unconvinced that it’s a good idea: first, it’s easier to care care about the character’s motivations if we have to tease them out of the narrative than when they’re vomited in our laps; second, if the character already has that level of self-knowledge at page 30, how much development can we expect? The story was mostly harmless, though there was a weird bit of gratuitous backstory ex machina, and I found the playing of non-consensual sex for laughs to be rather distasteful.
Update: Google leads me to believe that I have invented the phrase backstory ex machina. First “Buddha attack”, now this.

Lord of Light Review

Lord of Light, Zelazny. Yes. Upon re-reading, I do believe the protagonist in this work is qualitatively different from those I mentioned before, if not so much in himself (and I do believe there are substantial differences in the character, but my argument doesn't have to rest there) as in having peers, rather than just rivals and perhaps a mentor (and I'm simplifying, but I think not over-). There was some homophobia and misogyny, though an argument could be made that they were posturing by the character to evoke a response. I don't think Zelazny wrote many gay characters, sympathetic or otherwise. Smokers, yes, even if they have to roll their own cigarettes. I imagine he quit about the time his protagonists did, but it doesn't seem to have been soon enough for him.
Probably not the most reliable introduction to the Hindu or Buddhist religions.

Is that a legal word?

If you're playing a word game, and you don't have a dictionary handy (but do have access to the web), you can find out whether a word is likely to be legal by typing it into the box at What's the good word? Yes, it's ugly, but it's usable from a phone (and I'm not Mr Web Designer anyway). I may build a wml version to make it a little phone-friendlier, but I don't expect to make the html version any prettier.

The Brief History of the Dead Review

The Brief History of the Dead, Brockmeier. No. The only thing I found wrong with this book was that it failed to fulfill its promise, and its promise was so great that failure is a disqualifying defect. The first chapter was lovely (Nebula-nominated, O. Henry anthology-appearing), and the writing was lovely throughout (if a bit masturbatory in spots), but ultimately, however lovely it was, it took what should have been a big idea and did nothing with it.

The Killing of Worlds Review

The Killing of Worlds, Westerfeld. Yes. The conclusion of The Risen Empire, it's largely indistinguishable in quality from the prior work. The overall work is somewhat disappointing in plot-related ways. Not Books of Lost Swords disappointing, but it perhaps underscores the difficulty of constructing a plot that justifies the sweep of space opera.

The Risen Empire Review

The Risen Empire, Westerfeld. Yes. Better story than writing, in the space opera tradition. Very sloppy editing and/or proofing, almost certainly due to Tor (fine spelling bee word, so-so publisher of sometimes-excellent work). Separate from that, a number of technical details are again mis-stated (sorry, I did not keep careful track this time), which I find troubling insofar as I find it difficult to reconcile that sort of ignorance or carelessness with good writing. And yet I have almost nothing bad to say about the writing.

But did it deter mugging?

Instead of finishing a bunch of novels last month, I read some current and back issues of my very favorite magazine, Fortean Times. I feel that it helps me appreciate the glorious variety of people and things in the world.

From the October 2006 issue (FT214), page 42, in the article "Big Cats on the Border" about tracking sightings of exotic big cats along the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland:

"On Monday, we headed off to Dublin Zoo, where we interviewed head keeper Gerry Creighton. Gerry is a career big cat man, and was involved with the legal seizure in 1997 of a jaguar and serval from a private owner who kept them in his garage and walked the jaguar on a lead around a local housing estate at night. These animals were subsequently placed in English zoos."

and on page 44:

"At present, the [Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] provides homes for six tigers, a pair of lions, a leopard and three wolves that have all been acquired from private owners."

February Reading

Wow, it looks like I didn't finish anything in February, so I'll give you a March title:
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
The overall effect reminded me of Carl Hiaasen: fun characterization, good use of language, exciting plotting, but at the end there are too many neat coincidences and quick resolutions. I wish it could have been more of a complete package. Three stars.

They try out everything across the pond

UK : Sound of Music :: US : Grease
They seem to have started more or less simultaneously, which makes me wonder (idly, natch) whether there was some Dutch musical that was subjected to Hoi Polloi casting first.

Okay, so it's frozen, now what

Also via Lifehacker, how to leverage a freezer full of food.

Me, I just throw it in the freezer and hope

The National Center for Home Food Preservation tells us what and how to freeze. Or can. Or dry. Or pickle. Or whatever. They're your one-stop preservation shop.
(Yes, we've talked about freezing before)

I will not buy this tobacconist, it is scratched

The international symbols are now easily available from AIGA. No need to resort to alleged English-Hungarian phrase books.