Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Here's a start; head on over to the Mad Men Menu and Entertainment Guide over at epicurious.com for their take on a somewhat modernized Mad Men menu.

cheeseball!

Is the caramelized onion dip at epicurious.com supposed to be a fresh take on the Lipton onion soup California Dip? Gosh, I haven't had that for 20 years. I used to love that stuff with Ruffles.

Okay, so I'm probably the only person on this site who was alive in the 60s, so listen to the voice of experience:

Rule Number One: Garnish everything with canned pimientos.
Rule Number Two: Put a couple of eggshells into the percolator basket when brewing coffee.
Rule Number Three: Don't be afraid to put vegetables in your Jello.
Rule Number Four: If you don't have Tupperware, wrap everything with waxed paper.
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Mix a small jar of grape jelly with a bottle of Heinz Chili sauce in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring until well-mixed. Stir in a package of cocktail weiners or some porcupine meatballs. Serve in a fondue pot.

Spread crustless white bread slices with cream cheese, sprinkle with chopped chives and roll up like a jelly roll. Cut in half and wrap each with a halved bacon slice held in place with a toothpick. Bake at 375 degrees on a rack on a cookie sheet with sides until golden brown and crispy.

Make a batch of Bisquick biscuit dough. Take a ball of dough and wrap it around a cocktail weiner or a halved hot dog. Bake at 400 degrees until brown. Serve with bowls of ketchup and mustard for dipping.

Fill celery with cream cheese, or better yet, homemade pimiento cheese spread. Yeah, baby.

Skewer cubes of canned ham (Spam is a very acceptable substitution) with chunks of canned pineapple and green pepper squares. Broil on all sides until golden. Serve with a sauce made of baby food apricots, soy sauce and brown sugar and a splash of white vinegar.

You could do lime Jello with canned pears or lemon Jello with grated carrots, but follow the instructions on the package for Jigglers and cut them into squares.

One of my mom's pinochle friends would contribute cheese globs, I mean cheese puffs--she used Swiss cheese in pate choux (cream puff pastry), which would've been tasty had she baked them long enough.

Two words: Finger sandwiches. Made with Underwood Deviled Ham.

For dessert, someone always brought chocolate oatmeal no-bake cookies, gingersnaps or blonde brownies. Always dry, always made with margarine.

Don't forget Pigs in the Blanket. Still a big favorite.

@betterirene I remember it well! at the thought of deviled ham sandwiches I actually threw up a little ewwwwwwwwww. I would definately go with pigs in a blanket too though

Thanks for all the nifty ideas. This is all reminding me of something my great aunt used to make.It was sorta like the vienna sausage w/chili sauce and jelly, but different. She used kielbasa, cut into 1 1/2 inch slices. She's mix equal parts chili sauce and grape jelly and leave it in the oven at a really low heat for hours. Then, about half an hour before serving, she'd uncover, up the heat to about 350-400 and cook until the sauce was super sticky and the kielbasa had little browned bits on it. It was really, really good. She's serve it with rice for dinner, but I bet I could just lay them out on a platter with ruffled toothpicks and a bowl of the stick sauce.

Also, I was alive in the early '60's, but my diet then was pretty much baby food.

@bettarine - I checked out the onion dip. I thought it was really interesting that they used masala in it as my newest kick has been using MDH's Raita Masala mixed with sour cream as a dip for chips. It's really good.

I have cookbooks left from the 50s and 60s. It's interesting that, then, there were so many recipies for jello molds and geletine based salads using, not only fruits, but vegetables (remember perfection salad?). Nowadays, you rarely see recipies for jello molds.

do the rumaki!

i did: http://bonappetempt.blogspot.com/2009/08/homage-to-mad-men-gourmets-rumaki.html