Recipes So Old-School They’re Cool!
Call them vintage, call them classic, call them retro – these recipes are so old-school they’re totally cool! Whether it’s an appetizer, an entrée or a dessert, once you try one of these ideas from Delish, Taste of Home and Pioneer Woman, you’ll add an entirely new dimension to your cuisine routine!
Old-School Appetizers
From The Daily Meal, these old-school appetizers have never quite disappeared from game day snack menus for diehard gridiron fans. Pigs in a Blanket and Grape Jelly Meat Balls are two recognizable favorites — the meatballs because you only need three ingredients and a slow cooker; the piggies because Everything Bagel seasoning amps ‘em up. (Photo Credit: Jacqui Wedewer)
We grabbed an Everything but the Bagel shaker from Trader Joes on University in Littleton – a bit of a schlep, but worth the trip.
Nothing says retro quite like Ambrosia Salad or Jell-O® molded with some kind of berries – raspberries or strawberries, plus pineapple and sour cream. Throwback all the way to the 50s with Taste of Home and try a refreshing fruit salad, during these winter months sans farmer’s markets.
From Taste of Home, you can grab a blast from the past with these vintage appies — like Crab Tapas, Sweet Pea Pesto Crostini, Smoked Salmon Canapés or the Dilly Cheese Ball. There are 47 more here, including a meatball recipe with a sweet-tart cranberry dipping sauce, and smoked trout paté. Anybody’s mouth watering yet?
Classic Entrees
Speaking of meatballs, this Mini-Meatball Italian Casserole from Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, is the epitome of home-style hospitality. Save it for entertaining if you can wait that long or make it tonight! You’ll need Italian sausage, ground beef, and plenty of Ziti pasta, Parmesan and fresh mozzarella. It’s comfort food on a plate and EVERYONE will want seconds!
Welsh Rarebit sounds like rabbit, but this is a meat-free, Pioneer Woman’s 1950-ish dish. Just crusty, buttered bread – toasted under the broiler, and a cheesy sauce made with beer, Worcestershire, sharp cheddar, and an egg yolk plus a little butter and flour to thicken. With dry mustard, paprika, cayenne and chives, it’s the spicy-tangy kind of dish that Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore probably ate for Sunday dinner.
Chicken-Fried Steak is a treat from Southern Living that’s an old-school Southern dish – not exactly low calorie but certainly tasty to the last bite. Served with peppery, creamy gravy, some historians trace the origin of chicken-fried steak to German settlers in the Texas Hill Country. The most authentic versions of this dish use tenderized beef steak with breaded (cracker-crumb crust), fried and smothered with gravy flavored with a Worcestershire and hot sauce. 
Turkey Tetrazzini from Southern Living is another nostalgic casserole with cream-of soup on the ingredient list plus fresh mushrooms and baby Swiss cheese, Parmesan and lots of seasoned croutons. Not your style? Try one of the other 39 other retro dinner recipes to find one that is!
Vintage Desserts
Both Taste of Home and Southern Living specialize in vintage recipes for desserts – from Grandma’s Cookies to Retro European tortes and pastries. You can find popular cookies to bake and roll, like Coffee Toffee Bars, Melt Away and Molasses Cookies, and Rum Balls.
Cooking with Gas (and Electricity!) in Crystal Valley
Perhaps one of the best things about moving to one of the new homes in the master-planned community of Crystal Valley is the automatic tendency to declutter. Who wants to unpack more than is absolutely essential?! Surrounded by nature minutes from the lively, lovely town of Castle Rock, the beautiful models from Richmond American Homes, Kauffman Homes, Century Communities and D.R. Horton – in ranch or two-story models – are priced from the $300s. It doesn’t get any better than this!
