Roquefort and pecan covered grapes

LOL Jessy!

Are they Retro (good), Passe (bad) or Timeless (who cares they are too good NOT to make)?

Ooohhh! Let's all vote! List all mentioned things and what your vote would be on them AND PLEASE ADD MORE OLD FOODS TO THE LIST...... these are my answers

Satay - Passe
Rumaki - Retro
Punch - Retro
Crostini - Timeless (even if I am going against the trend here)
Roquefort grapes - Passe (sorry Jessy, I think I ate too many of them last decade)

Guess the 50s have moved into vintage, so maybe the 60s and 70s are retro? Who decrees these things?

Here is one opinion on the ReluctantGourmet.com:

My food related memories of the '60s also include cocktail parties, where my parents and their friends consumed mysterious drink concoctions with enticing names like "manhattan" or "rob roy." I loved these parties because I could sneak in unnoticed and help myself to "pigs in a blanket" or other form of cocktail frank, deviled eggs, spinach balls, onion dip, stuffed mushrooms and two of my favorites that I still serve my baby boomer friends: Asparagus Rolls and Mini-Reubens.

Teresa - who was going to suggest deviled eggs

Two items that I think we'll see in the retro revival are crepes and gelatin desserts. I'm not talking about the lemon Jell-O with vegetables salads of yore but fine gelatin desserts with wine and fruits.

Alexa, I'd put canapes on the timeless list rather than crostini.

If it was every delicious, it is still delicious, not matter what it's called.

We'll be having our annual cheese and meat fondues dinner tomorrow night. Been having the same dinner since I was a little girl. Only change is I will do molten lava cakes instead of the traditional chocolate mousse.

Fondue-retro
chocolate mousse- retro
Also retro: lobster newburg

I think it all depends on how old you are!

I think fondue is retro too, and I always felt that crostini was just toast with whatever on it, sort of like those shrimp toasts my mother used to love a million years ago.

I think devilled eggs are timeless and I think things made of jello are passe. I think a cheese plate is timeless, cheez whiz is passe and pimento cheese is retro.

Beverly is right, if we thought it was good before, we'll probably still think it's good, so it's all perspective, really. The next poster will come along and disagree with me and that's fine.

I gotta tell you, ruthanna, although we nearly always agree on food, that no matter how much wine you add to jello, it's still icky, LOL.

Annie

Fun thread! Here are my votes:

Satay - timeless
Rumaki - no comment because it's something my crowd wouldn't eat.
Punch - way way passe. I don't care if it's "back in", I'd rather drink wine or a cocktail than a sweet punch
Crostini - Timeless (I agree!)
Roquefort grapes - regardless, IMO, too much trouble for the results.

I also agree with:
deviled eggs: timeless
fondue: retro
jello whatever: way way passe

And to add my own... how about Chili con queso -- that combo of melted velveeta & rotel. I'm going to say (still) passe although I expect it to come back as retro any second!

Pigs in a blanket - timeless because no matter how passe they REALLY are, people (esp. guys) love 'em and gobble 'em up.

I'm so glad you said that about the Crostini Annie! I've always wondered why people go so foolish over whatever on toast and call it crostini. And some of the chefs on TV act like it's a real recipe, kind of like adding salad dressing mix to pasta.

I've never cared much for deviled eggs. My family thinks they have to have them every holiday.

What about jello shots? I've only had them a couple of times and for some reason I can't remember much about them, except that it was a fun party.

I've never paid attention to what someone else said was passe - it might be an East Coast thing, but I haven't noticed it coming up much here, although perhaps I don't get out enough. I do remember a lot of dreadful food from the past (especially pre-1980s), however, although I'm not sure that passe is a strong enough word to describe it. In the early 1980s Thai food was all the rage in San Francisco, and then it was later replaced with Vietnamese.

So are we calling the previous decade the "oughts"? I always spelled it "aught", but perhaps that is now passe. I haven't been good at keeping up lately.

Lars

I wasn't talking about dressing up packaged Jell-O. If you take a look at some of these dessert recipes, you'll get a better idea of what I meant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gelatin desserts

Cocktail meatballs or little hot dogs (where the sauce is chili sauce and some sort of jelly; usually grape) are coming back as "retro" food. I've noticed punch coming back as well but not the sickeningly sweet fruit juices with sherbert (although they can been good) but the original hard liquor punches. Those are mighty fine!!!

Those "retro" savory jello dishes are aspics. Something stomach churning about them, IMHO.

Pimiento cheese may be retro in MI, Annie - but it's never gone out of style here in NC. And I see lots of menus currently have PC on burgers or in grits. Still got to try those grits w/ PC.....I'll send you a to-go box, Annie! Hardee, har har!

Teresa

I don't know. How old am I? Bah-da-boom! Am I retro yet? I think I'm still in the passe phase.

Hard liquor punch?! Wow, interesting. I love chocolate mousse. I would think of it as more timeless. But that's just me. Jello shots. What a blast from the past. Along with "test-tube" shots. Haven't seen those in forever. But then, I'm not out where I'd see them. Maybe they're still around.

I Love cocktail parties....and have been going to cocktail parties since 1954...little black taffeta dress, tall black suede pumps....martini in hand, standing around drinking and talking and eating a few nibblies until either your feet gave out or you drank so many of those martinis you couldn'ts tand any longer.
In the beginning it was California dip and clam dip....with shrimp and cocktail sauce....and a few strange things spread on roasted bread rounds, things like pimento cheese spread with an olive slice.
That gave way to Martini's up and Scotch and water by teh early 60's....with rumaki and shrimp with cocktail sauce, and that thing you spread on english muffins...with mayo and grated cheese and chopped green onions....and by say 1964 you could buy sour cream dip already made....so that was ubiquitous, with Ruffles! And I think it was about then that meatballs began to be at every party....tiny meatballs in a chafing dish.
And about 1970....about the time of the big hair and the elephant bells, the Tex-Mex craze began....at least here....and we had bean dip with corn chips at every party!
Because of who I am....when I go or went to any sort of cocktail gathering, there was ALWAYS Maytag Blue cheese....maybe in a dip, or on a cheese tray or stuffed into celery...or a tomato.
Then there seemed to eb a time where everyone served various vegetables stuffed with something...tomatoes with crab, endive with chopped seasoned shrimp, celery with peanut butter, red and green pepper slices with goat cheese.

I don't go to many cocktail parties any more....seems most of those sorts of parties serve wine not Martinis and the snackies seem to be a wonderful assortment of cheeses, various French cheeses, crusted with ash or aged in wine, goat cheeses, various mouldy stuff like Brie and Camambert and Gorgonzola.
So....Punch...tacky unless it's really marvellous with good liquor and a minimum of soda pop and fruit juice.
Rumaki....retro...haven't seen it offered in years.
Cheese board? Tacky and dated unless it's assorted interesting artesinal cheeses, with something besides wheat thins, triscuits and saltines.
Devilled eggs are for lunch, not cocktails...but people do love them.
Roquefort grapes....just fussy.
Fondu, retro
Baked Brie dated and out...
That hot dried beef dip, dated...as well as Knorr spinach dip
Shrimp with cocktail sauce...classic...
Meatballs...classic unless they are in that catsup grape jelly sauce...then they become not only dated but passe.

Fun thread...my son and his wife are haveing a 1960 dinner party tomorrow....so we spent some time over Christmas trying to think of the classic 1960 dinner party menu.
Think Rumaki is on for cocktails....and shrimp cocktail as appetizer...beef wellington twice baked potatoes,w edge salad and they were mulling over av eggie. Baked Alaska for dessert.
Oh yes and martinis and manhattans....and not fruity martini wanna bees! LOL!
Linda C

How funny!!! I never thought of "fashion trends" in food! If it tastes good, I eat it!

One thing we always had when "entertaining" was hors d'oeuvres arranged on the coffee table. Cheese and crackers (natch) and I think they're timeless because as long as the quality is good, just about anyone can eat them. We always had radish roses, celery & carrot sticks (when we were being fancy, we carved them up a bit and let them curl in ice water the morning of), scallion fans and canned black or jarred green (with pimento!) olives. Now we call raw vegetables 'crudites' and think that makes them fancier. A can of smoked oysters was a big thing too, with toothpicks artfully stabbed, here and there so people could figure out how they were meant to eat them.

Are tea sandwiches retro yet? The little triangles of white bread, with a thin layer of tuna/egg salad, deviled ham, butter & cuke/watercress, cream cheese & olives with the crusts cut off because God forbid there should be any scrap of texture? Truly awful, but I must admit that when they show up on a church coffee hour tray, I enjoy them anyway.

Are fruit-flavored wines completely gone yet? I remember as a kid, attending an awful lot of parties when glasses of horrific wines like, "Annie Green Springs" and "Bali Hai" were served out...ha, remember Weibel Green Hungarian and Blue Nun? Those were FANCY!

I hope chicken wings are deemed passe soon. Then maybe the price will go back down. ;)

Are chocolate fountains still 'in?' A few years ago when I was selling catering, they were a big deal. Not the little ones you buy for home use, but the big ones. Dipping fruits, cookies & other items in warm chocolate mixed with oil. Woo Hoo!

In terms of going out to eat, remember when Sushi Bars were the absolute rage? Having Japanese friends since childhood, I'd been eating sushi of one sort or another for years before it was the "in" thing to do. The funny thing was that for most Japanese folks, sushi was either picnic food (in case of the vegetable roll type) or a snack to nibble on when your main biz was to drink beer or sake ( or, o.k., o.k., tea)...it wasn't really meant to be dinner. Having had this in my head early on, when dragged to yet another sushi bar for dinner by friends newly 'turned on' I couldn't ever get over looking for the real food. I'll eat all of it, even the odd things, but when I sit down to dinner, I want more than rice and raw fish, no matter how attractively plated.

I recently catered the food for a Retro Cocktail Party for an upscale client. Featured cocktails were real martini's and manhattans no froufrou adaptations allowed. Here's her menu:

COLD

Assorted Pinwheel Canape's
Roast beef with horseradish cheddar
Smoked salmon w/ herb butter cream cheese
Cream cheese & Confetti Pepper jelly
Rosemary ham and Asiago cheese

Onion Dip
Caramelized Vidalia Onion Dip with your choice of one:
Pita Chips, Cape Cod Potato Chips or Vegetable Crudit�s for Dipping

Stuffed Celery and Vegetables
Herb Goat Cheese Stuffed Fresh Vegetable Assortment

Cheese Ball
A blend of Cheddar and Blue Cheeses and Roasted Garlic encrusted with Pistachios
Assorted Crackers

HOT

Rumaki
An assortment of water chestnuts, chicken livers and bay scallops wrapped in bacon with soy ginger glaze

Swedish Meatballs
Your choice of traditional or low fat turkey

Hot Crab Dip
Fresh lump crab dip with a subtle kick of horseradish
Assorted crackers

Pigs in a Blanket
Frankfurters in Mustard Caraway Pastry

Stuffed Mushrooms
Your choice of stuffing:
Traditional sausage
Roasted red pepper and prosciutto
Or vegetable

Chip n Dip - if you have one of those old sets. I have one from the 50's - it belonged to my mother. Chartreuse triangular shaped dish with rounded corners. The similarly shaped dip dish is propped up on the side of the chip dish with a little wire contraption.

Ham salad loaves - frosted no less. The kind where you cut the crusts off the bread, slice the loaf lengthwise in 4 or 5 layers and spread with ham salad. You could alternate layers of pimento spread, egg salad and ham salad. It screams the 50's.

Too bad you don't live closer. I'd let you use the chip n dip set!

The link to the loaf says - this sandwich loaf will be the talk of the party. And here is another link. Interesting what they did with the radishes and pineapple rings - kinda scary, but definetely the 50's.

www.foodmigration.com/2005/08/so-retro-sandwich-loaf.html

Teresa

Here is a link that might be useful: Betty Crocker sandwich loaf

Well, I'm not old, I'm calling myself mid-centry modern lol.

Passe: anything poured over a brick of cream cheese
Retro: anything in a chafing dish or fondue pot
Timeless: think stiff white tableclothes, waiters in formal dress, heavy silver, martinis and manhattans straight up - what would you be offered??? Shrimp cocktail, oysters rockfeller, crab louis, fois gras, caviar, smoked salmon...oh, I'd like to go there now.

seagrass

oops, that's the Manhattan typing - make that "mid-century modern"

started on New Year's Eve a bit early...

seagrass

Linda, your cocktail party memories made me think of this photo in my 1958 Time Life Picture Cook Book.

Seagrass, I can just imagine a creme de menthe parfait for your dessert.

Photo is captioned as follows:
Top row, from left: crab meat in canape shells, avocado dunk with corn chips, stuffed celery.
Next row: shrimp with remoulade sauce, hot fish bites with chili dunking sauce, clam and cream cheese dunk with potato chips, broiled anchovy fillets on toast.
Foreground: cucumber slices with smoked salmon, cheesed potato chips, steak Tartare with pumpernickel bread, curried meat balls, garlic tomatoes, melon wrapped in prosciutto ham and broiled deviled ham with chutney,

Retro to me is all the dishes and drinks I made in my 20's and 30's. I refuse to call them passe becuase they make me smile.

Retro

Cheese Balls
Onion dip made from sour cream and french onion soup mix with a splash of Lea and Perrin because I was racy
Pineapple and ham cubes on a toothpick ( with curly things on the end)
Cheese and olives on a toothpick
Shrimp dip ( don't even ask)
Bacon slices smeared with sardines in tomato sauce, rolled and broiled
Smoked oysters from the can
Cheese Dreams

Passe

Tortilla type roll ups
Rye bread hollowed out and filled with dip
Puff pastry covered brie

Classics

Shrimp cocktail
Cocktail Meatballs
Cheese and fruit plate
Breads and pate
Stuffed mushrooms

And for drinks...... Harvey Wallbanger, Singapore Sling, Manhattan, Martini and Sweet Vermouth on the rocks.

Ruthanna - I think that's where we're going tomorrow night. Seriously. We've been invited to a New Year's Eve party by people who cook from those pages. And, wear those shoes.

But I know from experience they make serious cocktails.
Who cares if you have to eat dogs in a blanket after a perfect Manhattan??

seagrass

Ruthanna:
I think them Photo's were taken at my house ???
LOU

ruthanna, it's the texture. I don't care what you put in gelatin, I cannot swallow the stuff. It's like the gelatinous goo in pie filling, I just can't stand the way it feels in my mouth. It is (and I repeat myself) icky. LOL

I still love shrimp cocktail, it's how I first ate shrimp, after I got over the fact that it looked like grub worms. I still like it best just boiled and cold, with cocktail sauce.

Teresa, grits and polenta and mush. They're all mush to me, LOL. As for pimento cheese, there was a company called "Price's" that sold pimento cheese spread here like crazy, everyone bought it for parties. Suddenly, it was gone. And now, 15 years or so later, it's back and everyone is buying it for parties again, that's why I dubbed it "retro".

I've never gone to a cocktail party and I don't even particularly like cheese, but every party I've ever gone to there's been a plate of cheese and crackers. Sometimes the crackers were Ritz and saltines, more often they were better, like Carr's, and occasionally they were homemade. I always kind of liked the crackers.

Crostini is too difficult to handle, they are never small enough to be less than 3 or 4 bites, they are usually crunchy and topped with something messy and if you don't have a plate and you're juggling a drink of anything in one hand you're dripping the topping and the crumbs everywhere. I've learned that if I don't have two hands empty when someone offers me a slice of crunchy bread with a slice of tomato, a piece of mozzarella and a smear of pesto, I decline with thanks.

Does anyone remember those little square "cocktail rye" loaves of slices? I still like one of those with a sliver of Dubliner, my one concession to the cheese world!

Annie

This is a fun thread!

Lindac, somewhere in your bones you have to be a deep southern girl. I enjoyed reading your post! I love love love cocktail parties with my feet hurting all night because of the heels! We still do that!

Jello shots! I still haven't been able to do one of those...

ruthanna, I love the old days party pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Chase! Harvey Wallbanger! Shoot...I haven't thought of him in years!

Thanks River....from you that's high compliments...

Anyone remember that thing where you hollowed out a spot in a cabbage and put a can of sterno in it and stuck skewers in the cabbage with chunks of ham on them. The intent was to hold the ham over the sterno until it got hot....

Here is a link that might be useful: Retro appetizer

Linda, that gives a whole new meaning to the term "wienie roast" doesn't it? LOL!

Annie, those square loaves of rye bread still appear in stores here about Thanksgiving. That's the only time I see them. I like the one with the cheese spread that can be frozen. Those were good, but I always thought the bread dried out too easily. Or, maybe it came dry when you bought it?

Teresa

We still have the cocktail rye bread here. Teresa you're right it comes a bit dry. I use it for cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Haven't done them in years though....so it must be retro!

I remember witnessing many a cocktail party (so much so, I loved my mom's hairstyles, and I am even wearing it up with a crown of curls today. Wonder what influenced that? I still wear the dress and heels), remembered tasting all of your appetizers after the early 60s, but never have I seen the sterno one! What decade was that? It has that 50s sort of spacy starburst look to it. You know, like the clock.

Here is a link that might be useful: space clock

A couple of years ago, we went to a Christmas party with a reto theme. I took a flaming watermelon instead of a cabbage. In the late 60's, Polynesian-style restaurants presented a Sterno-fueled mini iron hibachi to grill the little marinated steak skewers (I think they were called cho-chos or something like that). I made ones with a marinade similar to my memories of the Tiki worlds.

Love the pics from Ruthanna! fun thread.

My dad sent me a link to more pics of "Retro Hors-d'Oeuvres" from Saveur. includes recipes....

Here is a link that might be useful: Retro Hors-d'Oeuvres

Bizzo, that is a great link!

I'm in the midst of shedding myself of stuff including old recipe files. I found this in a little tin that held my favourite recipes when I was in my 20's.......and trust me that's retro!

I got a chuckle when I came across it because I recall thinking I was the cats pajamas for serving anything so exotic...bleu cheese dressing after all! LOL

I also came across several casseroles and desserts that made me smile thinking about how special I thought they all were and back then they were.

Snappy Cheese Snacks

8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
1 TBSP finely chopped onion
few drops Tabasco
1/4 cup crushed nuts
Pretzel Sticks

Combine cheese, salad dressing, onion and Tabasco. Form balls and roll in chopped nuts. Chill and serve on the pretzel sticks.

I still have an Appetizer book from 1980. I keep it and have served from it for years. Best thing in it is BUTTERFLIED BAYOU SHRIMP. That's good stuff!

I wouldn't hesitate to serve "World's Best Pimento Cheese" to anyone! Young and old seem to love it. What's not to like about home made??