Cooking With Cheese (Polly-O)

Today's cookbook is Polly-O Recipe Book: Cooking With Cheese from the Pollio Dairy Products Corporation. It was published in 1968. Click thumbnails for full pictures.

This booklet features a lot of the oddities of 1960s and 1970s cooking, namely the fascination of stuffing foods in other foods and everything gelatin. While I love that a lot of the foods look pretty inedible, my real interest in this book is in the pictures of the late 1960s packaging, especially the bi- and tricolored designs.

1. Front cover - A medley of cheese delights


2. Ricotta Ravioli (with appetizing background color)


3. Stuffed Frankfurters


4. Fruit & Cottage Cheese Mold | Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes


5. The swinging 60s would have been nothing without cheese!


6. A trio of Polly-O packaging


7. 'The Polly-O Family Of Fine Foods'

Cookbooks - part one

I collect cookbooks. Not those priceless heirlooms handed down through many generations with great-great-great grandmothers' notes scrawled in the margin, nor first editions of Fannie Farmers. I like cookbooks from the twentieth century--with lots of graphics, preferrably those that date the book to its respective decade. The more garish and unappetizing (and shiny) the food, the better. Think James Lileks.

My favorites are from the first half of the twentieth century with softly hand-colored photographs in pastel shades that are slightly unreal. But I can't resist the eye-searing dayglo hues, garish psychedelia, and slightly-dated modernity that mark some of the best cookbooks of the 1960s and 1970s, either. Even the 1980s managed to eke out some appealing cookbooks, many as accompaniments to quintessentially 80s products like Kool-Aid.

For the next few months (or, until I run out of material), I'm going to be featuring choice photos, illustrations, and other oddities from my collection. All posts will include any information I have on the publication (date and sponsored company/featured product, if applicable), and all pictures are thumbnails. So, click on them to see a full size, complete picture. There will be little Lileksian commentary; no one is as talented as he in capturing the true spirit of these artefacts. Continue reading for my first selection...

I'm not really sure if I should start or end with this cookbook. It's the gem in my collection. As you can see, the photographs are gorgeous. Why, it's More Wholesome Food At Lower Cost for 2 and 4 and 6. It was published in 1941 by the Pet Milk Company.

1. Front cover - Salmon Vegetable Dinner with Creamed Peas


2. Pancakes


3. Peach Shortcakes


4. Coconut Cup Cakes | Pineapple Rice Pudding


5. Hot Corned Beef Sandwiches | Vegetable Meat Rolls with Vegetable Sauce


6. Spaghetti Dinner


7. Hawaiian Ham Cassarole


8. Salmon Rice Cups


9. Back cover - Cherry Cream Pie


Come back soon for more cookbook graphics!

Arrested Development - Season Three

Not a lot more can be said about Arrested Development, the brilliantly quirky Fox comedy that was finally dropped after three stressful seasons. Adding salt to wounds was the further disappointment at the Emmys last Sunday (the show was nominated for best comedy, Will Arnett for best supporting actor in a comedy -- both lost). Many bloggers have already waxed poetic in the name of this underappreciated show whose intelligence and wit remain unmatched on the tv landscape. Still, I think the show was so side-splitting and unique that it deserves one final plug.

Arrested Development's third and *sniff* final season is out on DVD now. I went to get my copy of the two-dvd set today, and the first store I went to was sold out. A worker told me that they were flying off the shelves on Tuesday. It's worth any amount of perserverence to get your hands on a copy. Watch it and mourn for all of the brilliance we've been deprived.

M. Hulot's Holiday / Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953)

M. Hulot's Holiday is the perfect summer movie, the exact embodiment of summer set to celluloid. Like a series of snapshots of family vacations, the film radiates humor and a fond nostalgia for holidays past.

The film's picturesque seaside vignettes are juxtaposed with the laugh-out-loud slapstick of Mr. Hulot and all who fall in his path. Just call it 'Monsieur Haricot à la Plage.' The title character is surely the father of our favorite catastrophe-stricken Brit. Mr. Hulot, played brilliantly by Jacques Tati, is a puzzling character. His animated actions are far louder than his words. Like Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean, he barely speaks. The character proves to be comically polite and, even more comically, oblivious.


Many of the vignettes center on universal holiday experiences: things going horribly wrong and general misunderstandings. Whether or not Mr. Hulot's presence is accountable for all these disasters isn't clear. Regardless, chaos ensues wherever he goes. Whether he's on the road (a flat tire mistaken for a cemetery's memorial wreath) or in the sea (his snapped-in-half boat causing screams of 'shark!'), nothing goes too smoothly when he's around. You'll just have to watch it yourself to see its 'explosive' ending.


If you're a fan of the earlier slapstick movies, M. Hulot's Holiday will be a favorite of yours. It's the perfect antidote to the big-budget blockbusters of this year, or any year.

M. Hulot's Holiday (1953)
Directed by: Jacques Tati

For more Tati talk, turn to Tativille [full-screen]

The Great Ken Jennings

If any of you are loyal Jeopardy! viewers, you may remember the miraculous Ken Jennings. If not, it might be hard to appreciate how exciting the show became with him as its top contestant. I was pretty taken with the quick-witted, dexterous champ. In fact, I even have a signed photo! I was very pleased, then, when I discovered his blog this week. It's quite an interesting and amusing read (especially for trivia buffs). If his blog is any indication, I think Ken's upcoming book, Brainiac, will be a must-read! Ken Jennings is also auctioning off a giant Ken head on eBay for charity. Giant styrofoam heads.. why isn't Jeopardy! this exciting anymore?

Welcome!

Welcome to Curly Wurly! Luckily if you're just tuning in now, you've missed a bit of a blog identity crisis and subsequent mental breakdown. I wonder how many other hapless bloggers out there knew they wanted to blog but didn't have a clear vision of what exactly they should blog about. Choosing a subject seems practically like a serious life-long commitment! Okay, so...

• What did you narrowly avoid seeing here at increasingly irregular intervals?
This was going to be a blog entirely devoted to britpop! I realized in the nick of time that my love of Blur and Pulp are probably exhaustible topics for a blog.

• So, what can you expect here?
Think something in the style of three of my favorite blogs: I Like, Swiss Miss, and World of Kane. I suppose the major difference is this will reflect my interests and personality. I'll be highlighting a little music, a little design, film, pop culture, art, a bit of a mixed bag. Basically, whatever is appealing to me at the moment. Which, hopefully, appeals to someone else out there! So, officially.. check back very shortly!

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