We’ve gathered recipes, tips and more great picnic ideas from the ’70s so you can have a fab summer celebration, retro-style!
recipes
Base this hearty Green Beans Bravo salad on the rich flavor of tender Blue Lake Green Beans, and you’re in business with a new favorite for buffet suppers.
This Ko-ko-nut pie has a golden lacy top, its luscious filling with delicate coconut shreds – and now you can make it the good old fashioned way!
Seven-Up floats! Ice cream and 7-up – what a cool, cool combination for a summer afternoon! Get a few different vintage float recipes here.
Try a banana split cake! This indulgent dessert has three delicious ice cream flavors along with rich fudge and split bananas in a graham cracker crust.
In 1985, country music star Loretta Lynn shared this recipe for herb batter fried chicken, which she said was ‘crisp as a country morning.’
These little tamale pies are single-serving meals that have sliced tamales baked into a spiced corn batter. Get the recipe from the ’50s here!
This beautiful Spumoni Elegante is a deluxe version of a frozen dessert classic: fruit-studded cream filling encased in a luscious layer of velvety egg custard.
Here, find out how to make the popular old-fashioned 7-minute frosting — plus get some how-tos on whipping up some tasty new ways to enjoy this icing!
The frosting is in the middle of this nutty and fun Pistachio Inside-Outside Cake. Get the retro recipe from the ’70s here!
This creamy chicken salad mold is a tantalizing mixture of chicken, mayonnaise or salad dressing, broth, gelatin, seasonings and lemon juice.
Except for the silvery cones atop the towers, this fantasy ice castle cake is completely edible, built with rich cake, paved with icing and rock candy.
Here’s an easy way to make a chocolate souffle with pudding mix – or make one with another pudding flavor, like vanilla or butterscotch.
Baker’s German chocolate cake – made with a luscious coconut-pecan frosting – quickly became one of America’s most famous cakes. Here’s how to make the original version!
Soup’s the seasoning and the smooth cream gravy in this delicious classic Glori-fried chicken recipe from the sixties.
This vintage cinnamon twists recipe takes just seconds to knead, needs only one rising, and the breakfast twists can be served plain or frosted.
Here’s a cool pie for a long, hot summer! Summertime and the fixin’ is easy! And this sour cream lemon pie is as delicious at it is easy to prepare.
From the C&H private collection comes a recipe for these Christmas cookies. Viennese sugar twists are shaped like a pretzel, but are a whole lot sweeter.
The flavor of homemade caramel syrup depends entirely on how caramelized the sugar was before water was added. But when you get it right, you end up with an amazingly complex and sweet syrup to pour on desserts and use in a variety of ways.
Making this Toll House Pie — basically a big chocolate chip cookie pie — is probably easier than you think!
English muffins in a loaf! The greatest thing since sliced bread. Just wait until you bake up a recipe and toast a slice. Nooks and crannies inside – crusty outside.
Here’s a moist delicious lemon nut bread that is really unusual! It has a delightful fresh lemon flavor — and what an eye-catcher it is, too!
Are there any chocolate lovers in your house? Surprise them with this chocolate rhapsody cake. Such rich, chocolaty flavor. So lovely and tender.
In this ’50s recipe for springtime fancy cake, a homemade yellow cake is spread with green buttercream frosting, then adorned with marshmallow flowers.
This beautiful pink royal rose chiffon cake is a light-textured and elegant old-fashioned dessert. Get the recipe from the ’50s here!
Texas Two-Step Chicken Picante. It’s easy as one, two, and is a lip-smackin’ new way to do chicken your whole gang’ll eat up.
A quaint, old-fashioned idea for a modern cake! You’ll see the beautiful results in this chintz cake — so easy to make.
Check out this easy how-to for “Fried chicken, Far East style” – an Indian-accented fried chicken curry recipe from 1950.
These adorable little candy ‘nests’ are created to hold one perfect little ‘egg’ — also known as a peanut m&m. This vintage recipe could help make an adorable addition to an Easter basket!
Here is a collection of eight deliciously sweet homemade chocolate custard recipes from a variety of vintage cookbooks and newspapers.
Cup-a-Soup has made cooking for two a lot easier — the soup does the seasoning in this retro ’80s recipe for garden chicken for two.
Here are a few ways to make a happy Easter surprise — cute vintage Easter cakes, using ideas and recipes from the fifties & sixties!
A perfect way to preserve summer fruits for year-round enjoyment is to do as your ancestors did and make some tutti-frutti. What’s that? Find out!
Here’s a retro jelly bean carousel cake that’s cute and creative for a child’s birthday. Anyone who loves jelly beans (doesn’t everyone?) will love it.
Make honey-cornmeal biscuits – either cut-out or drop biscuits – and smooth, sweet honey butter with these recipes from 1987.
What’s the history of avocados – and where did these funny-looking things come from? Get the amazing avocado’s story here, and find out about their earlier name.
Corn con carne: Creamed corn makes a sauce for meatballs South of the border fun with good-cooking and good-looking Del Monte Cream Style Corn It’s
This choco-mint party cake recipe starts with a pre-made angel food cake, and adds a flavorful colored frosting that oozes out from between the layers.
These big, hearty potato-filled burgers are stuffed with tender cubes of potato, then you simmer them in Hunt’s tomato sauce. Quick and easy to make.
Get classic recipes for old-fashioned popcorn balls, along with peanut brittle, molasses, caramel sugared and confetti popcorn versions – plus tips for the best way to pop corn.
Here’s an easy-to-make recipe for Cheerios on a stick – no-bake snack treats that combine Cheerios with peanut butter, marshmallows and a few other goodies .
You can make your own homemade cheese sauce in 3 minutes – no flour or shortening. It’s delicious over these tuna fritters – get the recipes!
Find out how to make some old-fashioned marshmallow Easter eggs, including krispie eggs, frosting eggs & an adorable nest cupcake basket!
Here’s a retro dinner recipe from the 1950s for a potato-topped hamburger and green bean casserole.
Glowing with cheer, try this fresh-made delight – Kahlua Christmas cake, made with ground almonds instead of flour, and covered with a mocha frosting.
Instead of plain bread crumbs, try making crispy oven-baked fish with a cornflake coating! Kellogg’s corn flake crumbs create a crunchy crust, which is made more bright with Tabasco pepper sauce. Get the 1960s recipe here.
Here’s a retro recipe for a pink raspberry-angel food dessert that’s super easy to make with marshmallows and gelatin, and requires no baking.
This fantastic double-layer chocolate fudge recipe doesn’t just have twice the chocolate, but two different layers of deliciousness.
The story behind Mrs. Wilson’s Mother’s Hand-me-down chocolate cake: A cake that my mother used to bake was all part of an incident in my childhood that’s as vivid as if it had happened only yesterday.
This homemade ‘Love me tender’ vintage Valentine cake with lollipop frosting has fluffy white icing and crushed cherry candy decorations.
If you like almost any cake, as long as it’s chocolate, this Fudgy-Nut Bundt cake is deep, dark, fudgy heaven.
New idea for dinner: a crusty SPAMbake. You make it quick with SPAM and Kellogg’s Corn Flake Crumbs.
Why is this called a Pink Magic cake? Because in addition to the yellow cake, this retro treat has wedges of a berry delicious Jell-O and ice cream mixture.
Here, get old-fashioned elderberry recipes for wine, elderberry jam & jelly, cobbler, pie and more delicious vintage-style treats!
This retro ’60s recipe for Chocoroons – Pillsbury’s scrumptious bar cookies – combines coconut with chocolaty flavor from Nestle’s Quik!
Treet is the meat (1945) The meal-ready meat most folks like best! Yes! Treet is the Meat! More people choose Treet than any other meal-ready
Imagine fragrant, warm cinnamon rolls with each bite full of chocolaty flavor! That’s what you’ll get with this vintage recipe for chocolate cinnamon buns.
You can whip up this easy and tasty chocolate-banana cream pie in just minutes with the help of some pudding mix and whipped topping!
Try one of these vintage 7-Up cake recipes with lemon-lime soda! ‘Never before have you had a cake so light, so airy, so high, and with such a delightful new flavor.’
Make a tasty retro-style taco salad tonight – it’s easy and fast to fix. Hamburger Helper helps your plain hamburger make a sumptuous supper salad.
Here’s how to make individual tuna dreamboats with bell peppers. Just watch the family cheer as these boats come sailing to the table!
Here’s how to make a good old-fashioned Ice cream cake with hot chocolate frosting, thanks to this recipe from the 1940s!
Get some great retro recipes for some classic molasses cut-out cookie recipes: Swedish crisps, gingerbread men & Christmas tree cut-out cookies!
Corn Quiche Lorraine is made with eggs, bacon, cheese, cream and creamed corn, then baked in a pastry shell. Get the vintage recipe here!
There’s magic in the rich, chocolate moistness of Duncan Hines’ mint magic brownies — and in how deliciously they disappear.
What’s for dinner? How about some old-fashioned macaroni and cheese? Get 10 delicious classic mac & cheese recipes to try, many of which might be new to you!
Holiday punch takes on a whole new dimension when you spark up the brew with deliciously fizzy drinks like ginger ale, 7-Up and Sprite!
Here are four easy retro recipes using packaged Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix – ranch Buffalo wings, nachos, snack mix and a cheese ball – coming to you from 1987!
Love those classic cocktails? Get the recipes here for some of the finest from the 40s: Gin Rickey, Creme de Menthe Frappe, Hot Toddy, Side Car, Pink Lady, Stinger, Champagne Cocktail, Manhattan, Daiquiri & more!
Try this Borden holiday eggnog pie, made with a filling of vanilla pudding, eggnog, spice, and whipped topping mix. The result is festive, delicious and easy.
Check out these old-time cookie recipes from the turn of the century to see what people loved to bake back more than 100 years ago!
Once upon a time, fruitcake took days to prepare. Weeks even. But not anymore! Here’s the famous 9-minute ‘can’t fail’ holiday fruitcake.
Are potato chip cookies really a thing? They are – and they can be an absolutely delicious blend of salty and sweet. Try one of these recipes to find out for yourself!
Want to serve something for the holidays that is deliciously vintage? Get recipes for three different fancy and festively decorated Christmas cookie recipes from the ’50s!
Here’s how to make that classic m&m cookie recipe loved by generations — and just as tasty today as ever.
Make an easy layer pumpkin pie! 2 vintage recipes that double (or triple!) the holiday deliciousness
Here are two great no-bake pumpkin pie recipes – a double layer pumpkin pie that uses instant pudding, while the second recipe has a base with plain gelatin.
Now is the season when fruit is abundant, cheap and in the best condition for making jams, preserves and jellies. Preserves mean fruit that is cooked with sugar, equal weight, and left whole or nearly so.
‘Tis the season for vintage Christmas Rice Krispies Treats, so find out how to make clown pops, surprise balls, crispy snowmen, toy animals and puddin’ tart shells and more!
Here are 20 classic mincemeat recipes (used to make the holiday favorite, mince pie) – as remembered through the decades by chefs, cookbook authors, in newspapers and family cookbooks.
These two retro pumpkin coffee cake recipes will make for a delicious breakfast or brunch — and they will even fill your home with that heavenly pumpkin spice aroma.
Meat is the foundation of a dinner, and vegetables, sauces, jellies, preserves and relishes help to make the whole complete. Here are several traditional sauces and sides to serve with meats.
Here are four different spins on a classic coconut eggnog pie recipe – one with bourbon, one with rum, two without booze – all delicious vintage desserts from the 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s.
What can you serve in the punch bowl? Some society ladies of Southern Mississippi offered these 21 fruity vintage punch recipes in the summer of 1969!
If you’d like to celebrate an proper Edwardian-style Christmas, here are lots of ideas for you! Get inspired by these recipes, decor tips, vintage images and lots more.
Velvet almond fudge pie This is an extraordinary pie — incredibly chocolatey, incredibly rich, with the delectable crunch of almonds. What makes this pie so
The cake everyone’s talking about: The rave reviews coconut cake. It’s lusciously moist and walnut-crunchy, topped by a sweet and creamy cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut.
Cookies… made with boxed pudding mix? Yep, it’s a thing, and they’re pretty delicious, too! Get retro recipes for chocolate chip cookies, butterscotch, oatmeal, lemon & more pudding mix cookies here.
“Hey, Andy, look at this. Onion dip with Miracle Whip.” There’s only one thing better than homemade onion dip. And that’s homemade onion dip made
From 1950: New adventure with pineapple: Classic pineapple pie! (Plus a tasty vintage variation to try) Try your hand… please your man with homemade pie
Here’s an easy and attractive appetizer recipe from the sixties for chicken ham pinwheels: a meaty oven-baked roll that you slice into pieces, sushi-style.
Who won $10,000 in 1976’s national chicken cooking contest? Find out, get the prize-winning chicken recipe – plus those for the 4 runners up!
If you’re looking for a dessert that combines chocolate with cheesecake-style tang, this vintage recipe for a no-bake German sweet chocolate pie may be just what you need!
If you’ve never thought of putting luscious, ruby-red cranberries into a pie, hurry and find out how royally delicious this Ann Pillsbury creation really is!
Whether you call them 7-layer bars, magic cookie bars or something else, It’s just layer after layer of delectable ingredients, spread on top of the other right in the baking pan. No mixing!
One pan! One mix! No more than 3 things to add and no more than 35 minutes of your time! Three cake recipes: Chocolate tunnel cake, Honey almond squares & Peach snowball.
If you love your yam bakes, we have 7 different ways to enjoy this holiday casserole! Try these classic yam bake recipes that feature peaches, oranges, apples, pineapple, nuts & more.
Try these delicious vintage holiday recipes for a Devil’s Food, Cherry-go-round, Holiday star, candlelight, gingerbread, White Christmas cake and other festive classic treats!
Create a holiday sensation with Duncan Hines & a bowl full of cherries: a vintage cherry Christmas tree cake!
