I have been known to buy them in moments of weakness, but I don’t really approve of joke cookbooks. I own dozens of cookbooks with barely usable recipes, but I make a distinction between books that are [...]]]> Margolis, Jack S. and Daud Alani. Cooking for Orgies and Other Large Parties. Los Angeles: Cliff House Books, 1972.

I have been known to buy them in moments of weakness, but I don’t really approve of joke cookbooks. I own dozens of cookbooks with barely usable recipes, but I make a distinction between books that are intentionally bad and those that have merely aged poorly. Cooking for Orgies and Other Large Parties: How to Cook and Serve Fabulous Six-Course Gourmet Dinners for Ten to Thirty People in One Hour for $1.00 per Person has always been a crowd pleaser, though, and I feel some genuine affection for it.

The authors, Jack S. Margolis and Daud Alani, claim to be “Hollywood Bachelors” with no first-hand knowledge of orgies. Their “friend,” Ernie Lundquist, “has an orgy…every Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m.,” and has taught them everything they know. Perhaps because of their lack of experience, or perhaps, as I suspect, because they are mostly excited about their cooking method (see below), Margolis and Daud don’t devote much of the book to talk of orgies. There are naughty line drawings throughout, and there is a perfunctory “Special Consideration” section at  the beginning, complete with a suggested time-table (”9:30-12:00: Free Play”), but that’s about it:

They quickly move on to the meat of the book, as promised in the subtitle: “How to Cook and Serve Fabulous Six-Course Gourmet Dinners for Ten to Thirty People in One Hour for $1.00 Per Person.” Their definitions of “Fabulous” and “Gourmet” may differ from mine, and, but I like their approach. Each recipe is presented as part of a menu. The book then provides two sets of instructions, one for making each dish step-by-step, and one “integrated recipe,” wherein all of the dishes in the menu are made simultaneously. Not a bad idea, really. It would help, of course, if their recipes sounded appetizing. The menu below, in which spare ribs are marinated in frozen orange juice, tabbouleh is scrambled with eggs before serving, and avocados are doused with apricot brandy is, unfortunately, indicative of their questionable taste.

Things don’t improve much in the seventh menu. The zucchini recipe calls for two tablespoons of instant coffee, and the Strange Bananas are coated in a sauce made from bread crumbs, buttermilk, and banana liqueur. Strange indeed.

Margolis may not be a trustworthy cook, but if his other books are any indication, he would probably make an entertaining host. They include A Child’s Garden of Grass: The Official Handbook for Marijuana Users (in which Ernie Lundquist makes another appearance), Jack S. Margolis’ Complete Book of Recreational Drugs, The Poetry of Richard Milhous Nixon (really!), and The Ins and Outs of Orgies.

My favorite book about entertaining is, without a doubt, Elsa Maxwell’s How to Do It, but the Better Homes and Gardens Guide to Entertaining has its moments too. Published in 1969, it covers everything from picking the right guests (”a party revolving [...]]]> Better Homes and Gardens Guide to Entertaining. New York: Meredith Books, 1969.

My favorite book about entertaining is, without a doubt, Elsa Maxwell’s How to Do It, but the Better Homes and Gardens Guide to Entertaining has its moments too. Published in 1969, it covers everything from picking the right guests (”a party revolving around touch football would be inappropriate for your elderly friends”) to the setting (”You can even decorate the garage, carport, or attic, for parties if you wish”) and, of course, the menu (”if you’ve invited foreign guests–their religion will often determine what they can eat”). Relentlessly upbeat, it promises a “comprehensive treatment of all elements of entertaining so that you may find the answer to any hostessing problem.” The solutions they suggest to these problems resemble, at best, the set of a Douglas Sirk movie and, at worst, a Jell-O and maraschino cherry fueled nightmare. I think this table setting falls squarely in the center of that continuum:  

I sort-of like the placemat (it’s cheerful!), but the aggressively painted egg-carton flower arrangement is a little too much for me.

I *love* anything that touches on teens and their blossoming hostessing skills. The Guide doesn’t disappoint, noting that “[s]picy, hot, unusual foods seem to be teen favorites.” Their suggested menu: Tamale Hero Sandwiches, “pickle-sickles,” and ice cream. Yum.

The menus for the adults aren’t much better. The meal below is, as promised, “colorful and eye-appealing,” but I have some doubts about the flavor combinations. I would probably secretly enjoy that ham/cheese/mushroom/cornflake casserole (the dishes aren’t labeled, so I’m guessing about the contents), but I feel less certain about the artichoke and mandarin orange salad, and more than a little worried about that (canned?) cherry parfait.

Aside from a delicious-sounding recipe for Swiss Baked Eggs (bacon, light cream, Swiss cheese, eggs) and some truly lovely mid-century modern furniture lingering in the background, I’m afraid that The Better Homes and Gardens Guide to Entertaining hasn’t aged so well. But if you, like me, have a soft spot for the garish and optimistic hostessing styles of the 1960s, this book is a treasure trove.

The editors of Better Homes and Gardens are responsible for many other books, including the famous “Plaid” cookbook, now in its 12th edition.  

The lacquered lobster on the cover was all it took. I was unable to resist buying Jim Fobel’s Beautiful Food  when I found it in a used bookstore several years ago. To its credit (as promised on the jacket), it has been a “constant source of [...]]]> Fobel, Jim. Beautiful Food. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983.

The lacquered lobster on the cover was all it took. I was unable to resist buying Jim Fobel’s Beautiful Food  when I found it in a used bookstore several years ago. To its credit (as promised on the jacket), it has been a “constant source of delight and inspiration to [me]” since then. Possibly more delight than inspiration–I’ve never actually made any of the recipes, which range from the merely fussy to the totally insane. The premise of the cookbook is that “meals in minutes” must be vanquished, and that food should be as much (or more) about appearance as taste. While I’m all for lovely presentation, Fobel sometimes took things a bit too far, in a completely charming sort of way. On Thanksgiving, for instance, he recommended dressing up the turkey “with a tailor-made pastry outfit,” otherwise known as a tuxedo:

(Recognizing that it might be difficult to freehand those spats, he was kind enough to include a template.)

 As Fobel mentioned several times, his background as a painter and potter (in San Francisco, in the 60s) informed his ideas about food. He saw his dishes as “finished edible creations,” fertile ground for experimentation. Unsurprisingly, his antipasto jars and Bas-Relief Oat Bread were a sight to behold.  The Mosaic Shrimp-and-Salmon Mousse was especially elaborate and exciting:

 As with most of the recipes, the mousse was accompanied by helpful diagrams (like this one) and detailed structural advice. Fobel seems to have recognized that his Erector Set-approach to cooking needed ample documentation.

One last treat: the author photo. I LOVE the cats.  

All in all, a delightful, if not so useful, cookbook. And it’s going for $.20 on Amazon! A steal, if you ask me.

Fobel wrote at least nine other cookbooks, including Jim Fobel’s Old-Fashioned Baking Book, Jim Fobel’s Big Flavors, Jim Fobel’s Casseroles, and Jim Fobel’s Diet Feasts.

(Housekeeping note: I finally put all of my cookbooks on LibraryThing.)