Friday, January 04, 2008

Do not make this recipe

Not unlike most couples, when my darling husband and I were first married we were young, in love, and totally broke half the time. Being a new wife meant I had to come up with some interesting meals for my new husband. I turned to a woman's magazine offer for help. For the price of postage I could have an entire month's worth of meals planned just for my budget and taste. All I had to do was fill out the questionnaire and wait for the computerized menus to fly to me. In 1970 anything remotely connected with the word "computerized" sparkled in the noon day sun and I was eager to take advantage of this new technology.

The appropriate forms were filled out, postage paid, and I sat waiting for my wonderful meal plans to help me with my budget while feeding my darling husband a tasty month of breakfasts, lunches, and romantic dinners. I added the romantic bit.

While looking through an old cookbook today I found one menu and I'm sharing this with all of you just in case you thought it was easy to be a new bride, twenty years-old and trying to stay on a budget. As I remember, these menus read like a school cafeteria with suggestions for meals that almost ruined my marriage. After serving the Tuna Noodle Rosy my husband said, "Do not fix that again, ever."

The thirty days of computerized menus went into the trash; this one must have been a survivor.

18th day of your computerized menu plan
Breakfast
Orange juice
Four-grain breakfast cereal with milk
Milk and coffee

Lunch
Manwich hot dogs
Fresh pear half
Milk, tea

Dinner
Tuna Noodle Rosy*
Green salad with citrus wedges
Rolls with margarine
Vanilla Ice Cream
Milk, coffee, tea

Tuna-Noodle Rosy
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup sliced celery
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 (80z ) can tomato sauce
3/4 cup water
1 cup uncooked noodles
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 can drained tuna
1/2 cup cooked peas

In heavy pan with tight lid cook onion, celery and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in sauce, water and noodles. Mix until noodles are covered with liquid. Cover tightly, simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in mayo, tuna and peas. Heat to blend flavors.

Please don't try this, it was horrible with the worst thing being the color, pink!

12 comments:

Annie said...

That is so funny! It's weird because tuna casseroles have also been known to wreck a marriage or two. lol.

maltese parakeet said...

i think we should turn this into a pbe challenge. something like "your worst early cooking disaster."

Deborah Eley De Bono said...

lil bird, that sounds like a good idea.

Joanna said...

LOVE this story - been there done something very like it, probably involving a can of tuna ;)

Joanna

La Vida Dulce said...

Rosy Tuna? Hmm. Sounds fishy.

Christine @ Serenity How? said...

Yikes! No poor fishy should suffer that indignity LOL!

Your blog is great and this post is too funny. :-)

Anonymous said...

I LIKE IT ALL...

GOOOOOOOD

http://www.WallyButler.com

manchu said...

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Deborah Dowd said...

OOh, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth!

Anonymous said...

Ha! Tuna was like a staple diet when I was at University. We used to make some pretty tasty tuna and cheese pasta - we called it "Tuna Splat" after the noise it made when landing on the plate. :)

Anonymous said...

My mom used to make this dish every now and then. She used a recipe from a computerized menu planner thing she sent away for in the early 70s. Must be the same giveaway you got. I actually loved this dish! Funny thing is I googled the recipe name because I wanted to make it and that is how I found your blog. Also from that same menu planner was a recipe for stuffed burger bundles which was another of my favorites.

Deborah Eley De Bono said...

ha, that is quite funny, anonymous. You should send us a post from your stuffed burger bundles.