Mackerel Pudding and other Regrettable Food

Thanks to a recommendation from Robin Brande,I'm now reading Wendy McClure's book called I'm Not The New Me,which is a humorous memoir about dealing with her weight. That lead me to finding her website for the book(linked in the title above for your viewing pleasure)that mentioned her new book,The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan,a collection of 1970s Weight Watchers recipe cards that she found while cleaning out her mother's basement. Some of these cards were displayed at one of Wendy's other sites,Candyboots and proved to strike quite a cord with people that it lead to this fun little food fest.



As a Weight Watchers veteran myself(plus my mom tried it ages ago and even used one of the WW cookbooks which resulted in a horrid fish soup/stew that lives in infamy to this very day),I can relate all too easily to these books,particularly the AMPP. I'm Not The New Me I borrowed from Booksfree but AMPP I just had to own. It's sort of a foodie version of MST3K,with it's ghastly images of bland,brightly colored or thrown together edibles that are anything but. Not to mention the objects d'art that some crazed photographer thought would actually compliment the "healthy" meals. Most of us don't think to add ceramic animals and decorative fabrics to our place settings and there's a damn good reason for that!



But even more frightening to the palate is The Gallery of Regrettable Food(which Wendy kindly supplied the link to with the WW cards),a hall of fame for some of the best of the worst retro recipes in America. Some of the cookbook titles featured at the Gallery are "The 10 PM Cookbook"(meals for the late night drunk in you),"Cooking with Dr.Pepper""More Fun With Coffee and my favorite"Better Homes and Gardens Meat Cookbook" which has the kind of manly meals that Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite would gleefully chomp down on-just take a look at some of these culinary beauties!


For the truly brave among you,more of these unappetizers can be found at James Lileks' site thru Candyboots or via his Institute of Official Cheer(he seems to specialize in finding wacky retro stuff and putting it on display).





Sorry for my lack of extra linkage but my tech skills have their limits and besides,if you're a true glutton for visual punishment,a little work won't stop you from checking it out! If you are planning a special dinner this weekend and are having trouble,just keep these books in mind or read IMNTNM for some well deserved laughs and sympathy.