Late Night Snacking

February 11th, 2013 by Erik Loomis

To busy to blog much right now, but I am pretty hungry so I figured some late night snacking is in order.

Bon appetite, 70s style!

…By request, the recipe itself:

6 medium bananas

1/4 cup lemon juice

6 thin slices boiled ham (about 1/2 lb)

3 tablespoons prepared mustard

2 envelopes (1 1/4-oz size) hollandaise sauce mix

1/4 cup light cream

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly butter 2-quart, shallow baking dish.

2. Peel bananas; sprinkle each with 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice, to prevent darkening.

3. Spread ham slices with mustard. Wrap each banana in slice of ham. Arrange in single layer in casserole. Bake 10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, make sauce: In small saucepan, combine sauce mix with 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, and cream. Heat, stirring, to boiling; pour over bananas. Bake 5 minutes longer, or until slightly golden. Nice with a green salad for brunch or lunch. Makes 6 servings.

Posted in General | 75 comments

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75 comments on this post.

  1. Matt:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:25 pm

    That… doesn’t look so good, and does remind one of what a culinary waste-land the US was for a long period. But what is slightly similar and very good is a good piece of pork (a chop, maybe, but not necessarily) that’s not too lean, with a slice of banana and good piece of cheese, perhaps gruyere, baked in the oven. If done right, it’s really very tasty.

  2. Ken Houghton:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    Is it Elvis’s birthday again?

    Alternately, can we get the recipe?

  3. Brenda Johnson:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:31 pm

    I will never eat again.

  4. Manju:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:34 pm

    sometimes a banana is just a cigar

  5. Domino:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:46 pm

    Got a link to any sort of recipe?

  6. Matt:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:53 pm

    Unfortunately, no- it’s something my (now dead) mother-in-law would make sometimes. I think she figured it out from trying it at a restaurant. I will see if my wife has details. It really is nice.

  7. Ahistoricality:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    It’s like someone in the McCall testing kitchen lost a bet….

  8. elm:

    February 11th, 2013 at 10:58 pm

    Hollandaise sauce mix? They can’t even recommend making real hollandaise?

  9. Dana:

    February 11th, 2013 at 11:08 pm

    I can’t say it looks appetizing, and I won’t vouch for the hollandaise sauce, but fruit and pork isn’t much of a stretch. I mean, prosciutto and melon, right?

  10. Bill Murray:

    February 11th, 2013 at 11:12 pm

    ham and pineapple

    ham and cinnamon apples

  11. Hogan:

    February 11th, 2013 at 11:13 pm

    So what’s the endgame here? I mean, eating them is obviously out of the question. Do they insulate your pipes or something?

  12. Matt:

    February 11th, 2013 at 11:19 pm

    I think it’s just a reminder that we must never forget our brutal culinary past.

  13. Manju:

    February 11th, 2013 at 11:40 pm

    steak and ketchup

  14. Erik Loomis:

    February 11th, 2013 at 11:45 pm

    “steak and ketchup”

    Which is an abomination.

  15. bob_is_boring:

    February 11th, 2013 at 11:59 pm

    That’s the worst thing I have ever seen.

    And I read Atlas Shrugged.

  16. DocAmazing:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:00 am

    Banana nana na na

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub1vmLCvspE

  17. herr doktor bimler:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:09 am

    Just look at those awesome bananas hollandaise.
    Just look at them.

  18. Erik Loomis:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:33 am

    You will repeat this statement when I put up tomorrow night’s random bit of American cultural history.

  19. Desert Rat:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:43 am

    Dear gawd, American cuisine prior to (and into, to some extent) the 1980s really sucked.

    Funny thing is my mom actually collected these recipe cards. I remember them as a kid. She never made this one though.

  20. Joey Maloney:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:46 am

    Bacon Banana Cookies.

    I made a batch. I had to know.

    They were actually fucking delicious.

  21. BATP:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:02 am

    obligatory link to the Weight Watchers cards from the 1970s…

  22. Alan in SF:

    February 12th, 2013 at 3:15 am

    I believe I had a heart attack just reading the recipe.

  23. marijane:

    February 12th, 2013 at 3:44 am

    dear lord, it’s bananas benedict.

  24. blowback:

    February 12th, 2013 at 4:21 am

    Except on pizza!

  25. blowback:

    February 12th, 2013 at 4:26 am

    An Americans mock English food? We never sunk quite that low!

  26. blowback:

    February 12th, 2013 at 4:28 am

    I quite disagree – mushroom ketchup goes very nicely with a fine piece of horse rump.

  27. blowback:

    February 12th, 2013 at 4:29 am

    Typo – should be ‘And’ not ‘An’.

  28. Anonymous:

    February 12th, 2013 at 5:45 am

    Wait, why does the hollandaise look like that pasteurized, plastic-encased shit the fucking Welsh put on their rabbits (or whatever)?

  29. Mrs Tilton:

    February 12th, 2013 at 5:55 am

    Really, Erik, you should leave this sort of thing to James Lileks.

  30. Hanspeter:

    February 12th, 2013 at 6:15 am

    Bananas Benedict VI

  31. Anonymous:

    February 12th, 2013 at 6:52 am

    TRAYF!!!!!!!

    I am doing the Jewish equivalent of this:

    http://youtu.be/GEStsLJZhzo

  32. Gus:

    February 12th, 2013 at 7:47 am

    That’s better than eating them.

  33. Ken:

    February 12th, 2013 at 7:59 am

    And just how many McCall’s readers could afford the $1500 kitchen appliance needed to make hollandaise?

  34. DivGuy:

    February 12th, 2013 at 8:17 am

    Are you referring to the whisk or the saucepan?

    It ain’t easy, but the problem is the technique, not the tools.

  35. Cody:

    February 12th, 2013 at 8:23 am

    This looks truly awful.

    Now I know what I’m making my wife for Valentines dinner!

  36. NonyNony:

    February 12th, 2013 at 8:27 am

    In McCall’s defense, the drugs in the 70s were really, really good.

  37. Barry Freed:

    February 12th, 2013 at 8:29 am

    I’m just getting over a week and a half long bout of the flu and this IS NOT HELPING!

  38. Halloween Jack:

    February 12th, 2013 at 9:53 am

    To be eaten while wearing a banana ham-mock.

    …I’ll see myself out.

  39. jake:

    February 12th, 2013 at 10:12 am

    Do a google image search on “candle salad”. Same genre of horrifying postwar era american magazine food involving bananas, but more phallic.

  40. LeeEsq:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:04 am

    I wonder how this happened. American cuisine had enough possitive influences and forms to be pleseant but a lot of home cooking was boring at best and revolting at worse. Even the most unadventurous Anglo-American cooks should have been able to produce realiable Anglo cuisine like roast beef. Not exiciting but tasty.

  41. LeeEsq:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:04 am

    Would you like some toast with your ex-benedict?

  42. Vogon Pundit:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:12 am

    Those who forget the past…

  43. Dr.KennethNoisewater:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:32 am

    LOL! Right? That is horrifying. When convenience foods became widely available, Americans apparently just decided to randomly throw food together and see what worked.

  44. Mrs Tilton:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:32 am

    I believe that Ken is refering to MeMeMegan McArdle’s German-engineered sauce mixer/cooker, actually. But that machine is for bechamel only. (She has a second one for hollandaise on her wish-list.)

  45. Dr.KennethNoisewater:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:32 am

    LOL

  46. Dr.KennethNoisewater:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:33 am

    I think they were just punking people with recipes back then. “Hey, let’s see if we can people to eat this shit!”

  47. JoyfulA:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:40 am

    I used to make candle salad for the family dinner when I was 7 or 8.

  48. DrDick:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:40 am

    There are many reasons why I do not miss the 7os and this (along with Disco and Prog Rock) is high on that list.

  49. DrDick:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:41 am

    You just do not understand, nobody cooked from scratch in the 70s.

  50. DrDick:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:42 am

    My sister in Oklahoma still does.

  51. Dr.KennethNoisewater:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:47 am

    I don’t believe you, DrDick. Nobody cooks like that anymore, do they?!!!!

  52. Left_Wing_Fox:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    You’re treading int James Lilek’s territory here.

    Which is fine.. The Gallery of Regrettable Food is one of the few truely bipartisan things I’ve ever seen from a republican columnist.

    http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/

  53. Bill Murray:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    too many key parties to go to

  54. LeeEsq:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:37 pm

    +1. The best way to cook steak is to coat it with salt, pepper and olive oil. If you need to use a sauce, Peter Luger’s steak sauce or a really good mustard.

  55. LeeEsq:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:38 pm

    Are doomed to eat jello with weird things stuck in it.

  56. LeeEsq:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:39 pm

    I take it you weren’t much in the mood for romance.

  57. Malaclypse:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    That circle of hell is reserved for those who believe God resides on Kolob.

    That said, I do miss funeral potatoes.

  58. ScottRS:

    February 12th, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    Pork in nearly any form with apples, likewise.

  59. Randy:

    February 12th, 2013 at 1:39 pm

    I had to check that recipe, and I may have to make the cookies.

    I like that they specified Kosher salt.

  60. DrDick:

    February 12th, 2013 at 1:51 pm

    Sadly, my sister does (bear in mind that she is in her mid-50s). You know all those awful recipes in small town newspapers? Those are her staple.

  61. Njorl:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:01 pm

    If you made real hollandaises sauce, would you put it on bananas wrapped in ham?

  62. Njorl:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:05 pm

    The fruit should be tart. Even extremely green bananas wouldn’t quite go.

  63. Njorl:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:11 pm

    One never knows what has been stuck in one’s jello.

  64. expatchad:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:13 pm

    Hence the Waring blender. (also used for movie editing).

  65. Substance McGravitas:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:15 pm

    If you have opaque jello you have a problem to start with.

  66. expatchad:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:19 pm

    With bananas?

  67. expatchad:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:27 pm

    You mean “Standard Okie Cuisine” Offered at NCED in Norman? (But you have to go postal to go to nced)

  68. DrDick:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:36 pm

    Pretty much. My sister is pretty much a Standard Okie.

  69. Bloix:

    February 12th, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    That style of cooking was on its way out in the ’70′s.
    This is what was happening in the ’70′s:

    from

  70. TribalistMeathead:

    February 12th, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    Exactly. This is an era where vegetables came from a can or from a bag in the freezer.

  71. DN:

    February 12th, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    In the interest of science, I just took a fine slice of prosciutto de parma and wrapped it around a big hunk of banana. It actually tastes pretty darned good. I am a bit fearful of trying it with a Hollandaise so some other brave person can do that.

  72. elm:

    February 12th, 2013 at 8:19 pm

    Oh, trust me, having been born in the mid-70s, I well remember my mom’s cooking. She would add ‘Sauce Arturo’ to dishes if she wanted to spice it up a bit and lipton soup mixes featured prominently. My favorite recipe was canned asparagus on top of white bread toast, topped with Cambell’s Cream of Mushroom soup.

    My mother was actually a good cook if she got her hands on a decent recipe, but she had no idea how to spice things on her own and she was trapped by the 70s cooking conventions well into the 80s.

    There’s just something about “Hollandaise sauce mix” that seems wrong. What is it? How can it resemble real Hollandaise?

  73. expatchad:

    February 12th, 2013 at 8:25 pm

    You escaped?

  74. STH:

    February 12th, 2013 at 9:19 pm

    Here ya go: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/04/funeral-potatoes/

  75. Ken:

    February 12th, 2013 at 11:41 pm

    Yes. Mea culpa, I confused this site with Balloon Juice, where the McKitchen is a trope.

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