Grapefruit, Avocado and Cream Cheese Salad: A Vintage 1950s Recipe

This is the first time I have ever posted a vintage recipe. The post is designed to work with Merle's Vintage Challenge, a monthly challenge that I am participating in on Instagram. Each month there is a different theme for the challenge and this month it is food and drink.

Today's is avocado and to link it up with the challenge, it needs to be vintage style. That is the only rule. Just let your imagination run wild though posts should be vintage and in some loose way relatable to the food of the day. Even anything avocado green would suit the theme just fine.

Anyway, I decided to share these fun avocado fruits on a rope with this vintage 1950s recipe. Yes, avocado is a fruit though we often think of it as a vegetable and we use it more like a vegetable. The recipe is from a 1950s cookbook called The Modern Family Cookbook by Meta Given, which is shown below. Obviously, my copy is battered, bruised and beloved though not by me. Yet.

Find The Modern Family Cookbook

in my eBay store on eBay.

Fair warning, I have not tried this recipe. When and if I make it, I think I will cheat and use store bought French salad dressing and I will have to have company because my husband does not really like avocado. Anyway, here's the recipe:

GRAPEFRUIT, AVOCADO AND CREAM CHEESE SALAD RECIPE

2 grapefruit

1 avocado

1/2 cup French dressing

Crisp lettuce, I'd choose iceberg

3 ounce package of cream cheese

Paprika

Pare whole grapefruit, removing white membrane as well as the skin. Cut out the sections, using a very sharp knife. Peel avocado, remove seed and slice 1/2 inch thick. Marinate both fruits in French dressing. Chill thoroughly. Just before serving, arrange drained fruits on lettuce leaves, with a ball of cream cheese in the center of each plate, then add a dash of paprika to the cream cheese. (The cream cheese may be omitted or cottage cheese substituted.)

Makes 5 servings.

And that's it. If you try it, be sure to let me know what you think!

See you

in the kitchen!

Brenda

Quick Links:

Find The Modern Family Cookbook in my eBay store on eBay. The avocado on a rope will eventually wind up in my eBay store, too.

How to Clean and Store Strawberries

About a Billion Berries Springbok puzzle, available here on eBay.

I was putting my fresh produce away this week and was thinking about my beautiful basket of bright red ripe strawberries.

To myself I said, "I wonder how I should store these strawberries to make them last as long as possible."

Of course, you need not worry overly if fresh red ripe strawberries disappear extraordinarily quickly in your home, which they normally do in my home, too. However, this time we happened to purchase our berries when we already had a ton of fresh fruit in the fridge so I thought that if there was a better way to store them, it might be worth trying this time.

Plus, of course, there is a little bit of extra concern right now that the strawberries be cleaned extra well because of the virus. Since you cannot scrub nor cook strawberries like you would a potato, a method that goes beyond simply rinsing them would be helpful.

So while preparing my cantaloupe for the fridge, I asked my assistant, my Google Home, "What is best way to store strawberries?" Google responded by pulling up the following video by Jerry James Stone:

 

If you just watched the video, you know that Jerry's method for cleaning and storing strawberries is not the simplest method going but I do not think that it is overly difficult. It requires water, vinegar and baking soda, three pretty common household ingredients and it requires a bit of time. Fifteen minutes to be exact but you can be doing something else in the kitchen while the berries are soaking. 

I found the process to be simple and I like the idea that the berries would be extra clean and last longer. What's not to love about having your strawberries last longer and the fact that they were cleaner than normal, was reassuring, too.

By the way, the berries lasted for eight days in my fridge. Not because they went bad before the ten days were up but rather because they only lasted for eight days before we ate them all. I agree with the reviews on the video.  "It worked!"

How about you? How do you store your strawberries? What about cleaning them? Are you worried more about using fresh produce from a cleanliness perspective? 

See you in

the kitchen!

Brenda

Quick Links:

Jerry James Stone's kitchen hacks videos. 

My top image is crated on a photograph of Springbok's finished About a Billion Berries jigsaw puzzle, which is available here on eBay.

Smoothies and Juices Jigsaw Puzzle

Eurographics does it again! I previously featured their beautiful and delicious Halloween Treats jigsaw puzzle and today, I discovered this wonderful Smoothies and Juices Puzzle. Both puzzles feature 1,000 pieces and both feature yummy treats though this one, of course, features a healthier treat. Included with the puzzle is one actual recipe. 

Recommended for individuals aged 9 and up, this puzzle measures 19.25 inches by 26.5 inches when finished. It is made in the United States and produced from recycled board and vegetable based ink.

As Eurographics says, you don't have to go to the juice bar to enjoy a delicious assortment of smoothies and juice! Yummy. 

If you had your choice of any drink in image, what would you choose? I would take the pineapple based smoothie, please. You can find this Smoothie and Juice puzzle on Amazon by clicking right here.

See you in the kitchen!
Brenda

Quick Links:

Find this puzzle on Amazon.
Discover the Halloween Treats puzzle.