Mondale, Joan. The Mondale Family Cookbook. Washington, DC: Mondale for President Committee, 1984.
My affection for Joan and Walter “Fritz” Mondale developed long after the Carter administration and the 1984 presidential election. The Beeman family was solidly and unapologetically pro-Reagan. My memory may be playing tricks on me, but I could swear my baby sister wore Reagan buttons on her onesies through much of 1984. I was in first grade, and not in much of a position to protest.
More recently, after many years on the east coast and a subsequent shift in my political leanings, I discovered The Mondale Family Cookbook. Published by the Mondale for President Committee in 1984, the book was purportedly written by Joan Mondale. From the woman who filled the vice president’s house with 20th-century American art (Louise Nevelson, Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Hopper) and who told Maureen Dowd that she would not talk about recipes or clothes during the campaign, the cookbook was clearly an attempt at a balancing act. Fritz wanted Geraldine Ferraro to be his vice president, and ran on a pro-Equal Rights Amendment, anti-nuclear platform. Joan, meanwhile, insisted that she was “a traditional wife and mother and supporter” and seemed at pains to counter the media’s portrayal of her husband’s campaign as radical. The cookbook allowed her to cast herself as a loving housewife from Minneapolis.
