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Welcome to the Mid-Century Menu, Ladies and Gentlemen!  Prepare to be amazed as I waive the wand of Mid-Century Magic over humble, (mostly) nutritional ingredients and turn them into something never before seen by man! What will the magic produce this time? A piece of veal shaped like a duck? A cake made from tomato soup? A jellied mass filled with eggs? Let’s find out!

*Bing*

Looks like the magic led us to this adorable pink cookbook pamphlet, SOUR CREAM The Gourmet Touch to Everyday Cooking. Waaaaaoowwwww. Oooooo. Ahhhh.  Bask in it’s glory.  Bask!

Seriously, though, I picked up this cutie at a local church rummage for about 10 cents.  It was a steal, especially with the cute graphics.  It doesn’t have the year on it, but I am guessing late 1950’s, early 1960’s and it is from the American Dairy Association Test Kitchen.  Now, I am going to agree with them that sour cream is an excellent ingredient. Is it magical?  Well…maybe.  But sometimes it’s powers are used for evil as well as good. Shall we see what is on the menu today?

*Bing*

How about…wait for it…Stroganoff Pizza! How’s that for something a little crazy?

Wait…adding yeast to…biscuit mix???  What the?  And chili sauce?  Well, I hope the gourmet magic of sour cream gets us through this one!

And we are off!

*Bing*

All the little ingredients.  Notice the giant tub of sour cream in the back.  Here’s hoping for magic!

The yeast, “softening” in the water.

All the biscuit/crust ingredients. Go, yeast, go!!

A nice ball of biscuit dough. Except for all the pokey parmesan.

Onions swimming in a half stick of butter.

The ground beef and mushrooms, frying away in the butter.

Meanwhile, I started rolling out the dough. It was pretty easy to roll out, but I couldn’t get it into a circle!  So, I just decided on lousy circles in the interest of time.

The beef, onions and mushrooms, all cooked.

And now the moment you all have been waiting for.  Here is where we add the magic of sour cream and get…

 *Bing*

CAT VOMIT!  Ahhh!!!

I think it was the chili sauce.  It gave it an unappealing pink/gray color. 

Okay, maybe it will look better on the crusts.

Or not.  Okay, let’s add some more magic sour cream and see if that makes it better.

*Bing*

Wellllll…that’s  a little better. Into the oven, I guess.

Straight from the oven. And curdled. Yum.

Tom, game for the first bite as always.  Even though I was kind of scared.

“So, how is it? Filled with gourment magic?”

“No. It kind of tastes funny.”

I took a bite.  It did taste a little funny. The stroganoff topping was actually sweet, which I didn’t care for at all.  Probably from the chili sauce.  But the crust was good. 

The Verdict:  Okay, not great.  The stroganoff topping was too sweet, and there was too much of it. And the heat from the oven made the sour cream curdle. But the crust was good, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

*Bing*

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