An 8 ½ out of 10 with a
history.
We were nearly younger than springtime when the late Henry
Gibson (the poet on Laugh In) and I appeared at the Willamstown Theater,
then Yale University’s
summer theater, in a new musical by David Shire and Richard Maltby.
Henry and I spent our salaries dining at the Williamstown
Inn. Every dinner table had on it a complimentary
crock of this very rich blue cheese spread. I believe it to be the first recipe
I thought I could replicate. I have made it for years.
This latest version in from The Gourmet’s Recession
Cookbook, only 99 cents at Amazon. Excerpt below.
You need a garlic press for the fresh cloves.
8-ounces cream cheese
(without bovine growth hormone) Trader Joe’s and Whole
Foods are sources.
4-ounces blue cheese, softened at room temp
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon raw garlic (about 3-6 cloves, pressed)
- Mash all the ingredients together.
Serve in an attractive container with your
favorite crackers. Will keep three or
four
days in the fridge. Take out 30
minutes before serving.
“I liked, your little book,” Marian
Tracy said to me, at an annual cookbook awards luncheon where my book, The
New Cook’s Cookbook lost to the Kitchen Primer, written by Craig
Claibourne, then editor of The New York Times.
Marian, a slip of a woman wrote Casserole
Cookery (with Nino Tracy.) The book
had six printings from 1941-1945. with subsequent printings until 1968. Casserole
Cookery was the hot book among the sophisticated set, subtitled,
“One-dish meals for the busy gourmet.”
Marian lived through tough times—a
depression and World War 11.
I learned from Marian that food
writing can be humorous. About eggplant,
she writes. “Some do and some don’t.”
That day, at the awards luncheon,
all the buzz was about a woman of the British baronage who “wrote” a
best-selling cookbook. Turns out, all
the recipes were verbatim, from Gourmet magazine.
I don’t remember my precise
question to Marian about the truthfulness of
cookbook authors, but I’ll never forget her answer, “We are all honest
pirates.”
Cg note. Marian’s books are available, but I can find
no biography of her to determine her birth date and date of death. Write to me at guilfordcarol@gmail.com if you know.
Thanks.
