Lucullian delights
Oh the hell with food fads! If it tastes good it's timeless!
How about Chicken Kiev? I used to serve it for dinner parties and I still like the flavour of it.
Black Forest Gateau was another ubiqitous dinner party food.
Love it! I guess I am a little 80's myself.
Shrimp would be fine but the beans are more my style today. Oops I just said style but I'm saying my style NOT food style. Anyway I gave up high heels years ago. I have my style and the rest of the world can follow or not.
Avocados NEVER go out of fashion in Texas.......this looks fabulous! May have to try it this weekend. I absolutely LOVE your site!! Thanks!
~Allie
How can something so beautiful and natural go out of fashion? I like those stuffed pineapples you see in some Asian restaurants or stuffed with chicken salad. And Fruity Tiki drinks!
Sounds so delicious, I wished I had all the ingredients necessary at hand right now (only thing I got is Spanish Smoked Paprika, which I once bought just because I liked the idea of having it at hand *g*).
I remember the first time I ate an avocado. A classic dish, an avocado half filled with a shrimp cocktail, served by a Norvegian lady on fashionable K Street in Georgetown. This was in the 1980s, so I guess it was an unfashionable delight already back then. 
Not that I cared.
It would never have occurred to me to fill an avocado with beans.
Strange, because I will happily place avocado slices on a bean tostada...
Nice one, Ilva.
My out-of-fashion food? Casseroles.
OK,
I give up. What is the fruit in the background?????
My mother and grandmother are a treasure trove of ancient food ideas..How about tiny voul-e-vents filled with mayonnaise and something unidentifiably fishy, topped with bright red fish roe (for that glamourous touch). It always appeared on the "hors-d'oeuvre" platter during the festive 80's.. Also from that period was a mashed avocado and rice salad bound with mayonnaise and tasty cheese. The whole concoction was moulded in a bowl, turned out and garnished with tomato slices..It looked absolutely hideous but tasted rather more-ish.. I could go one and on but dinners about to be served and I'm afraid these 80's flashbacks might spoil my appetite so I'll leave it there..
ann-couldn't agree more!
Toffeeapple-yes, I wonder what happend to the Gatau Black Forest/ Schwarzwald torte?! Everyone used to have that as a birthday wish cake in the 70's!
Kalyn-Aren't we a bit of every age we lived through?
Tanna nothing wrong with style, style is fine it the fashion that can be a bit heavy!
Allie-Great, I'll remember that! And thanks!
Courtney-Yes that's what I ask myself to! Viva the past!
Merisi-yes that's a classic, the shrimp cocktail avocado! They do go well together so let's be old fashioned which doesn't mean that we cannot reinvent it!
cc-Thanks xx. But are casseroles out of fashion?? Can they ever be? but then I suppose it depends on the type of casserole...
mike-I don't know, it's an artificial one but I guess it's supposed to be a pomegranate maybe? xxx
paul-thanks for that, no wonder you escaped! But somehow I think it was a lot more like that then so I don't think they were outside the norm. Or am I wrong? XXX
I stil make scalloped potatoes, but updated as I use guyere cheese and a good smoked ham between the potato and onion layers, dash of nutmeg, white pepper, salt, and half and half-mom used to use evaporated milk.
Another oldie but goodie I make are stuffed tomatoes (and red sweet peppers (hte green bitter ones), zuchinni, and any other summer veggie. But we prefer the tomatoes and I use a rainbow of colours of herirlooms from my garden. I usually make them with rice, ground beef & lamb mixed, garlic, onion, plus new additions of Vegeta, pine nuts, dill and Kasseri or Kashkaval cheese.
I love updating old favourites, but deviled eggs and that gross green bean casserole-well let them lie in peace forever - - -very dead!
PS - I just remembered another oldie remember those jello/crushed pineapple/cream cheese/walnut salads? They were awful! Can't update that as we don't do jello, maybe aspic, but not jello.
Another summer salad was that mayo loaded cole slaw that was on every summer table at family gatherings.
Now we very finely slice the cabbage, then toss with red wine vinegar and a light olive oil, salt and pepper. Great update, but my daughter-in-law says it is actually what her Italian grandmother always made and so does my son-in-law's mom a chef from the former Yugoslavia. So maybe not a true oldie, but new to our family today.
Anything served in a avocado and you have me wanting more! Looks delicious!
Mary-anne- you are a treasure trove of old dishes, so nice to read about them, some I really find timeless whereas others, like the jello salad, (so American in my European eye) sounds better forgotten! But as I never tried it I shouldn't really have opinions about it!
my sweet and saucy-yes, that's the spirit!
Many American recipes using quick packaged foods like jello and the green bean casserole came into vogue in the 1950's when much of this was to help women cook quicker meals.
Unfortunately this is the case even more so with many women working they often opt for fast food. This fast food includes crockpot dishes.
I recently saw in the freezer section packages of frozen veggies, etc. by Banquet (TV dinner fame)for crockpot stew. I was horrified!!!!!
We have always been about using fresh veggies and really cooking healthy dishes.
Here in California (SF Bay Area) Alice Waters and others ave organized school gardenes where children help plant, tend, pick and cook and eat fresh veggies.
I can't wait to begin picking from my garden! No green bean casseroles in our house, instead freshly picked and stirfried or steamed haricot verts will be on our menu!
Have you ever heard of avocado being eaten as dessert instead of as a salad or savory dish? Back here in Manila, we enjoy avocado with sweet milk or whipped cream then chilled. Try it.
mary-anne-Thanks for explaining! Good luck with your garden!
Terry Tan-Last year I saw a lot of blog posts about avocado smoothies but I never tried it. Now I will have to experiment a bit! Thanks!
Your site is AMAZING...and i adore your photography. I just wanted to let you know how much you've inspired me in the kitchen.
Oh! AND want to let you know that stuffed avocados are very popular now here in the states...lots of places [at least on the east and west coasts] serving avocados stuffed with all kinds of seafoods and deliciousness. I do it myself with ceviche, and good lord, if i'm wrong for loving the creamy against the acidic, i don't want to be right. =)
Avocado ice cream is very popular in SE Asia. After all it is a fruit! Whenever we are in Thailand I opt for a scoup of Durian ice cream, but my husband loves the avocado ice cream-so we trade bites!
Taro, corn, red bean, purple yam also are ice cream flavours in Asia.
Dawn-It is very inspiring for me to hear this so Thank You! And let's be wrong or are we right? Whatever-avocados rock!
Mary-anne-thanks again, I better try that too!
I LOVED avocado Ritz when I was a teenager - I though it was the total height of sophistication. And fashion be damned, it is a classic combination. In South Africa I often used to make tuna-filled avocado halves for weekend lunch - absolutely delicious! My other secret unfashionable cravings are melba toast, chicken Kiev and baked Alaska!
How lovely! I bet that tastes wonderful.
They may be unfashionable but I love them, my favourite fruit (well, perhaps 2nd favourite, after passionfruit).
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