From the Mother Jones Test Kitchen: Ann Romney's Family Recipes

[japple]

This was a lot of fun.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/ann-romney-family-cookbook-review-recipes

Are you cooking for Thanksgiving this year? Looking for some culinary inspiration? Me, too. This year, I decided to take come cues from Ann Romney and her famously large political clan. She has just published a new cookbook, the Romney Family Table, which promises home-cooked recipes and “favorite traditions” from the family that didn’t quite make the White House. I thought I’d fire up the Mother Jones test kitchen to see if any of the Romney family recipes might deserve a place at the table this year.

"Salad" really isn’t the right word for George’s favorite. Along with the pudding mix, the recipe calls for a can of crushed pineapple, a can of mandarin oranges, grapes, coconut, a cup of mini-marshmallows and an eight-ounce tub of Cool Whip. As I mixed all these ingredients, my children stood by and watched in horror as I added the pistachio pudding mix and the whole vat turned a ghastly, unnatural shade of green. The texture alone was enough to scare off the kids, who observed that it looked "just like throw-up."

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Everything in that articles looks (and sounds) like vomit.

Ugh.

[zbdent]

2. Roast Turkey, by Ann Romney ...

"Call the help into the office, tell them that they're fired if they don't figure out a different way to serve turkey this Thanksgiving.

Sip some Merlot.

Let (help) simmer for several hours."

[spinbaby]

3. Interesting read

Their cuisine seems to be stuck in 1970--I remember some of that stuff.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

4. Not stuck in 1970, stuck in 1955

When I read pudding mix, canned fruit and Cool-Whip, I knew she was a culinary philistine.

If she served me that and told me it had Cool-Whip, I would ask her if she ever read the ingredients list.

[spinbaby]

9. I don't think Cool Whip was around in the 1950s

I distinctly remember when Cool Whip was introduced--late 60s or early 70s. It was considered to be quite an advance over the canned whipped cream that was standard before then. There was an immediate surge of concoctions that involved various combinations of Cool Whip, Jello, pudding mix, mini marshmallows, etc. My mother in-law makes a concoction in which she mixes a package of lime Jello, a tub of Cool Whip, a can of crushed pineapple, and marshmallows. Really gross stuff, but fairly typical of the early 70s.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

10. My mother-in-law makes something similar

Except it's canned fruit cocktail and orange Jell-O.

I looked it up, and Cool Whip was first inflicted on the unwitting publick in 1967. From the Wikipedia article on Cool Whip:

Cool Whip Original is made of water, hydrogenated vegetable oil (including coconut and palm oils), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skim milk, light cream, and less than 2% sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), natural and artificial flavor, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, and beta carotene (as a coloring).[3] In some markets, such as Canada and the United States, Cool Whip is available in an aerosol can using nitrous oxide as a propellant. Cool Whip was formerly marketed as non-dairy, but in Jewish dietary traditions, Cool Whip was classified as dairy rather than parve (non-meat and non-dairy) because of the sodium caseinate (which is derived from milk). Cool Whip now contains milk and cream.

I'm reminded of an old Peanuts cartoon, in which Linus is looking at a box of breakfast cereal, and says that he's changed his mind and isn't going to have any. Lucy asks him why, and he replies, "It's full of ingredients."

[Freddie]

5. Wait a minute food snobs, I've made that...

It's really quite tasty although it's more dessert than salad. Kids love it and it's one way to get them to eat some fruit. Although now that it's a known Romney family favorite I may not make it again.

[Warpy]

6. Cut up fresh fruit and mix with strawberry yogurt,

the kind that's just loaded with sugar. It's pink and kids will eat it.

[japple]

13. Food snobs? Just now seeing this. There should not be any need for

folks to entice their children to eat fruit. It is a natural candy. It is sweet, colorful, and provides great colonic bulk--all of which is a daily necessity. If you have to put fruit into a chemical soup in order to encourage children to eat it, that is really sad and doubly sad for adults.

[Lucinda]

7. Eh. I love making my meatloaf recipe in my muffin pans. Great for freezing.

Looks like the photos in the article were intended to make the food look as awful as possible.
I know people who make that grape cool whip thingy for family gatherings, and I've never seen it look like that!

I'd much rather have a fresh fruit salad though.

[Paper Roses]

8. I may be one of the worst cooks in the world BUT

I would never buy A R's book for her offerings. Could not stomach it.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. That looks like an "ambrosia salad" variant.

The ratio of Cool Whip to fruit is wrong which is why it looks like vomit -- not that I'd eat it voluntarily even with different proportions. Too sweet for me.

[dem in texas]

12. Yuk!

Instant pudding and Cool Whip all in one recipe. It is Throw up! Those are two products to stay away from. Instant pudding has a terrible texture, like eating snot. And Cool Whip is nothing but a concoction of whipped fat and chemicals.