Photo: Etsy
I can pretty much trace the decades of my marriage by the cooking fads I once took seriously: fondue, cooking in a clay pot, sourdough, woks.
Then there are the foods I used to prepare regularly that I haven’t thought about in ages: beer bread, lime pie made with sweetened condensed milk, hot dog casserole with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Oy.
Fondue was popular in the early 1970s. I remember that we went to a dinner party involving several couples cooking their own chicken one bite at a time around a fondue pot. For some reason, that fad didn’t last long.
Clay pots had to be soaked in water first, and then the meat and vegetables would gradually become a stew as they sort of steamed inside the pot in the oven. If you ever decide to try clay-pot cooking, a word to the wise: store clay in a lighted, airy place. My pot kept growing mold because it retained moisture after being cleaned and I didn’t realize that storing it in a dark, enclosed cupboard was asking for trouble. Figured it out after contacting the company.
To keep my live sourdough culture going for months and years, I made pancakes with a bit of it every week, adding a little to my batter. I made a pictorial version of the blueberry pancake recipe and taped it to the cabinet for John when he was 3 so that he could make pancakes with my husband if I was not there.
As for the wok, a couple whom my husband knew from work came over one Saturday night so the wife and I could put her Chinese cooking classes into practice. I remember that I was nearly nine months pregnant with Suzanne. We made the most fabulous meal of all time — everything from scratch — but didn’t sit down to eat until after 11 pm.
Nowadays if I can’t whip something up in half an hour, I’m probably not going to make it, but all these fads were fun at the time.
Photo: Houzz
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
0wen was thinking of having a fondue party. Hold onto that pot.
Oh, too funny! (And thanks for letting me know it’s spelled with an “e.” Will fix it.)
Yum to everything you have cooked and eaten over the years, including hot dog casserole!
LOL. We did used to like it!
Oh, my! What a trip down memory lane! We had all of those things–my actual favorite was the clay pot. Then came the bread machine and the pasta machine–did you have those? The pasta machine was a potential marriage wrecker . . .
Oh, the bread machine! How could I forget? The bread crumbled to dust unless I loaded it with extra gluten from the store. … Never tried a pasta maker. Secret of a long marriage.
I am very impressed of all your cooking. My cooking was a can opener and a pot!
You had a full-time job outside the home. 🙂