Happy Retro Tuesday to everybody! I'd like to start of by responding to a comment that Maureen from www.thegreensuitcase.blogspot.com left on my last post: Henry's Chinese Lunch. She wrote that she missed the Montreal food.Well I have a bit of bad news about Ben's...In 2008 the employees went on strike, the bosses locked them out and eventually they closed the restaurant for ever and sold the building and it was leved off last year.
That was a sad day for the Montreal food scene! I remember going there with my Dad when I was small, and I found it so exotic! Oh well, what's a girl to do?
ok let's do the Retro Tuesday thing! Funny how we see things nearly everyday and don't really notice them...I nearly threw this book out 6 or 7 times! And it just dawned on me last week that it's the companion book to the blender we have!
It was bought in 1977 when my step daughter was born, so the blender is 32 years old. It came from Eaton's (does this ring a bell my Canadian friends?). Eaton's was a big store chain in Canada and I thought it was going to be here forever. The first store was opened in Toronto in 1869, it only had a staff of 4. They had stores all over Canada. The company shut down in 1999. For me it was the store, THE ONLY store! So I was really sad to see it go.
I had never looked at the delicious pictures in that booklet. Wow retro joy!
One thing I don't like is that you don't know which recipe goes with which picture.....
You know how gelatin molds make me gag? Well you can bet your sweet bipi that there's gelatin in the pale salmon sqare on the left...it must be a salmon mousse or tuna....And you have a fondue of some sort....
The relish tray is to die for and so are the fondue forks!
Next pic: first, please notice the backdrop!
Second: Look at that chopped salad on the left...it is a spinach salad all done in the blender! The instructions call for putting the spinach in the blender with some water and whiz it until chopped and then you have to drain it....
Is it supposed to save me time? I remember a time that having a blender in the kitchen was....wow! You had it going girl! You can cook now, you have a blender! I don't really use it anymore...I have a food processor. But I never know when I'll need it!
I cannot leave without pointing the mound of jiggly peach colored stuff on the left....is it the same recipe as in the first pic?
Be sure to visit the hostess with the mostest (she probably has a blender....) , Crazy Suburban Mom at www.crazysuburbanmom.com for more Retro Tuesday fun!
4 comments:
LOL, the mostest? You're hysterical... I left you a note back at my blog to comment after you did...I should have just left it here. Anyhoo - I do have a blender, well, had one that didn't work well and than got the kitchen ninja which does work well. So I was forced by lack of space to toss the blender. It didnt work well for the things I needed it to blend - altho for sure it would have blended spinch and um, all that pink pasty gob in those recipes. Which are yike-tastic
I never use my blender anymore..well,I never used it much period, but I love the little booklet. It's one of the things I collect. I so enjoyed your post today..you made me smile..:)
Wow! That is terrible about Ben's. A true Montreal institution. I remember going there as a child too. I remember the waiters with their crisp white shirts and black bowties! Then, when I was pregnant with my second baby, I worked kitty-corner to it. Yikes! I was there EVERY DAY. Smoked meat, potato latkes with sour cream, cheesecake, pecan pie - thankfully I was very active at the time and only gained 22 lbs. It could have been a real disaster!
I cannot believe that you have a 32 year old blender. That's crazy! I use my blender quite a bit - for smoothies, or slimfast shakes. Sad about Eaton's too. I think you commented on one of my pre-xmas posts about that being the only place to go see Santa. HOw right you are! Do you remember the old elevators with the operators who would swing open the big metal gates? Wow - more and more memory lane when I come here!
Oh, of course I remember Eaton's! I moved to Canada in 1984 and there it was - and Simpson's too. And Maple Buds! I miss those, too.
I like all those pictures, especially the lovely cucumber-patterned backdrop.
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