Is is Retro or Semi-Homemade? (Chicketti vs Cheese Tortellini)
Hey there, Swapatorium readers! Please take a look at this photo:
It looks like a retro dish, doesn't it? Well, it's not! In fact, it's a recipe from 2007 and it's from the brain of one Sandra Lee of "Semi-Homemade" fame.
I've always thought that Ms. Lee was the unwitting queen of retro cooking due to her "70/30 philosophy" which combines "...70% ready-made products with 30% fresh and creative touches".
Does that scream "high sodium granny cooking" to you too?
This month I thought I'd throw my testers a curve ball and make them compare/contrast two different pasta dishes from two different decades. The first being "Chicketti" a horrible little concoction from the 1970 revised edition of Campbell Soup's Easy Ways to Delicious Meals.
(It doesn't look much better when it's prepared in the aughts!)
The pretender contender to the retro crown being Ms. Lee's much maligned Six Cheese Tortellini recipe which uses....wait for it...Cheese Whiz in the sauce.
They're both in their corners...
*DING DING DING!!* (warning for those with sensitive ears: we get a bit blue with the language this time.)
I think that the results wouldn't have been so skewed if I had used the same kinds of pasta in both dishes but whatcha' gonna' do? Not many older cookbooks call for fresh pasta.
Anyway, here's the recipe for Chicketti.
Because you never know when you'll need to do your own Gob Bluth chicken dance.
posted by rakka deer @ 11:14 AM
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Dang! I love your posts!
Every time I come here, I secretly hope that you've posted another retro food experiment. They always end up being the highlight of my day. Thanks :)
Glad to know I'm not alone in my scorn for Sandra Lee. As if her cheerleader demeanor (and I mean that in the most obnoxious sense possible) isn't bad enough, there are so many reasons to hate that show.
1. The way her entire kitchen is color-coordinated to her outfits.
2. How she elongates the consonants in everything. "You're going to LLLLOve this dish. I can't WWWWAIT to TTTTRy this."
3. Her boobs, of which she, or her wardrobe person, are inordinately proud.
I'm not enough of a food snob to knock someone for taking a few shortcuts. But I find her entire delivery so grating that I turn the channel - FAST -- whenever I see her on. She belongs somewhere else, like, oh, I don't know. The Home Shopping Network. Or Mars. I can't bear that she's in the same airspace with my beloved Alton Brown and Bobby Flay.
In case you're wondering, perky isn't the bane of my existence. I quite enjoy Rachael Ray in moderate doses. But Rach's food looks much better.
So Funny! Great job on your testing and even trying to recreate the crazy recipes. And your Sandra comments are so true...rest assure you are not alone in your thoughts of semi-homemade is simply just sodium filled cheese wiz shtuff (purpously spelled wrong)...keep up the good work!
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