To Clip or Not to Clip?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It happens every holiday season: I start madly clipping recipes. And saving them in a drawer. I don't truly think I'll make any of them, but I might. I always..MIGHT.  And what if I decide--oh, I really needed that stuffed crown roast of lamb or the perfect grilled shrimp quesadillas and I'd thrown away the newspaper?

Now I know how anachronistic that sounds. "Newspaper" "clipping" "saving in a drawer." 

Then I found this:

 It's a recipe saving notebook I had in 1977. Seriously, 1977.  To prove it, here's an ad that was on the back of one of the recipes.

I clipped the recipes, and then taped them into this stenographer's notebook. (I even numbered the pages, which you have to admit is silly, since there's no index, so why would the number of the page matter?) Anyway, some of the recipes are timeless. Like this one, for Julia Child's Quiche Lorraine. There's probably not a better one that's been devised since then. 

 I recognize my handwriting from the 70's, a careful sort of printing that I will admit to you was cribbed from how my British pals wrote. It was not successful.  But you'll always need a good Bearnaise.

And Poulet Dijonnaise--that still sounds pretty good! See how yellow the tape is? It was so long ago.

This one, though,  Sno Pie, sounds pretty disgusting.

Oooh, chicken bourguignon. Reading the recipe, it doesn't sound like chicken bourguignon, it's sounds like Cordon Bleu. But, whatever. Apparently it sounded good in 1977.  Actually, if you read the ingredients, it still sounds pretty delicious.

There's some nostalgia involved. Here's Marge Clayton's Clam Dip--Marge was the wife of a writer named Bernard Clayton, who wrote a a classic book on baking. I just looked him up, and it looks like the book is now in its 30th printing. I remember the clam dip being pretty great.

But who is Helen Ward, and why do I have her black bottom pie recipe? So weirdly unsettling that I have not one memory of who that is.

Roast duck with green peppercorns. Lemon souffle. The Ne Plus Ultra mousse from Craig Claiborne. I  bet many of us have made that!

And here's a mystery recipe with no title and iffy instructions. I wrote in on a scrap pf paper, so whatever it was, I must have loved it. Reading the ingredients, I see, you probably can't go wrong.

So Reds, I will probably never make any of these things. There are two notebooks, and maybe a total of 150 recipes, spanning my (apparently) domestically focused years of 1977-1979. But still, I cannot throw these way.  I wish I had my Grandmother's handwritten recipe cards--my sister snagged them. But I'm not sure anyone but me would care about these. 

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Now I just look up recipes on line, easy peasy, and I have been know to ask Alexa for help. (Alexa, how many ounces in half a cup. WHat's 8 times 20 minutes?)  I still clip recipes, though, because you never know. Do  you? 

And if you need the perfect recipe for cheese fondue, let me know. It was the 70's right? Yes, I have that.