The cooking curse has been broken for days — once I remembered how hard it is to make something bad with cheddar cheese, I bought a block and had kickass spaghetti with cheese sauce. Also, really good mashed potatoes.

One b-day present which I forgot to mention is the 1958 Modern Family Cookbook, by the suspicously named "Meta Given." Either I'm in a sci-fi novel or that's a pseudonym.

Apparently it was my mom's first cookbook, so when she found another copy at a garage sale, she thought of me. I've been wanting to cook something from it, so tonight I made Cocoa Indians, which fall somewhere between a very light brownie and a very short cake. I'm too lazy to type it up, so here's the recipe:




I omitted the raisins, because I firmly believe that raisins are the devil. Of course, that made the recipe a little plain, so maybe I'll substitute nuts or chocolate chips next time I make this.

At least, regular raisins are the devil. Golden raisins, I've got no such issues with: they're not trying to be something they're not. Making something with craisins is practically one of my 43 Things.

Besides some decent recipes, most of which I can't make because I don't have this or that ingredient, the cookbook has some serious novelty value in its quaint, 1950s-style sexism. Here's the first paragraph from the introduction:




I know! Isn't it great! I imagine that this is the kind of thing gender studies students read for fun. Those crazy kids love to scoff.