No wonder the press hopped in bed with McSame so readily! It wasn’t the BBQ, it was the desserts.

Let’s keep that in mind for dealing with the press in future: give them “just desserts”.

You forgot one…an old German cookie called scheezakundt. It’s John’s favorite! Tagg says Hi!….http://www.tagg-theangrygayguy.com

Very Very Vanilla Wafers

Lime Green Jello Clusters

Iranian BombBombs

Skinny Lady Fingers

Why do these magazines keep asking candidate’s wives for recipes anyway? It’s like living in a zombie movie where the zombies keep doing the same stupid things over and over again. They’re trying to make everybody brain-dead like they are!

I wonder if there is any possibility, in our enlightened twenty-first century, that wives of candidates may NOT be asked for recipes? I can find plenty of reasons not to like McCain (and his wife, for that matter), but recipes off the Hershey’s website is pretty low on the list.

Auntie Claire–I see we posted very similar thoughts almost simultaneously. Maybe we should go offline and exchange cookie recipes.

I made the ‘expensive cookies’ recipe once. I have to say I was disappointed. Definitely not worth the million dollars or whatever they were reputed to sell for.

The media has convinced me that the domesticity of the candidates’ wives is a crucial factor. How can we deal with the many difficulties besetting our nation if Mrs. McCain or Mrs. Obama can’t produce an angelfood cake from scratch? If the wife can’t make a soufflé then the terrorists win.
On the other hand, the criticality of this issue can save time and money in selecting our leaders: rather than holding elections we can simply stage bake-offs.

Yes, very strange, VonZeppelin. We better stop thinking these crazy thoughts and get back in the kitchen and bake cookies and take pills.

Ahem.

At least HRC was very clear on this back in ‘92.

She don’t bake no damn cookies.

And thus, though she may have crossed the Commander-in-Chief threshold, she has failed to cross the Baker-in-Chief threshold. Bill’s demonstrated ability to eat is matched by his inability to cook so no presidency for Hillary.

I have to admit that the weirdest thing about these “old family recipes” is the notion that an “old family recipe” is something unique, even to a very old family. American women have been *cooking out of cookbooks* since Fanny Farmer. Anyone who is the child of an immigrant, or the grandchild of an immigrant, probably learned to cook from a cookbook and by definition,n o matter how hallowed in family lore, the recipe is not unique. Hell, those quintessentially inedible old timey favorites of my grandmother’s generation included frozen green beans, frozen onion rings, and campbell’s cream of mushroom soup. I defy anyone to tell me that that “old family recipe” could even exist sans commercial sponsorship and that mass produced faux produce.

aimai

No kidding aimai, this just gets silly. Unless you’ve got some serious technical cooking knowledge a la Alton Brown, exactly how much sense does it make to try to create a cookie or any other baked good recipe from whatever you can pull from your cortical nether regions? Anyone with any experience making simple mistakes while attempting to follow a recipe knows that trying to totally wing it, with no imput from any other source, often ends in cooking disasters.

Please note that I had to self restraint to not end the prior paragraph with a “recipe for disaster” reference. Thankyouveddymuch.

I cook up Dave’s Garden Chili from my “own made up” recipe. I started with a basic recipe from Better Homes & Garden cookbook. After changing 1/3 of the ingredients, I feel it is not plagerism to call the recipe my own.

Dude, if you think Pharmy McCain has recipes with herb, yer high. Dude.

Poached Eggs.

Get it?

Because she could have been stolen them…the eggs…in the dead of night…from the neighbor’s chicken coop…then prepared them in boiling water and vinegar…served them on toast…

Now that’s funny.

Please. Cindy McC isn’t baking any cookies. I doubt she could find the kitchen in any of their homes. Even if she does by some chance know the physical location of said kitchens, there is _no way_ she knows what is in the drawers or cabinets. Well, maybe the liquor cabinet.

To be honest, I did not think the media was still doing this nonsense. I thought once America had finally accepted that Betty Crocker is a fictional character, these stories became too ludicrous even for our alleged journalists. I should stop being such an optimist.

Someone with the skills should mock up Scarface John McCain as the Pillsbury Dough Boy. With a mushroom cloud backdrop.

Just because I have a cruel streak, I am going to insist on a series of first lady debates. It will be better than anything on prime time now.

I’m a little hurt that aimai scorns the best green bean casserole in the world. Seriously, I spent years trying to ponce up that particular recipe; the only thing that tasted “right” was pretty much the basic one she gives.

I cook like RealityBasedDave. A recipe is just a jumping-off point, and once I’ve changed it: it’s mine!

The saddest part of all this is: I’m not sure anyone even asked Cindy McCain for recipes. IIRC, they were simply posted on McCain’s website. I guess it’s a generational thing.

Ohh! A First Lady debate!

I’d watch. Hell, I’d host a party for that! Potluck.

Everybody’s justifying attacks on spouses saying “Well they made themselves part of the campaign; they’re fair game”. So let’s watch them debate!

I’ll provide a green bean casserole, and dip, of course.

People have been saying that poor Cindy McCain stole drugs from a charity she started. Actually, she probably started the charity for the sole purpose of having a drug supply. It must be nice to be rich.

Wait a minute…Betty Crocker is not real?

Woe.

Next thing, you’ll tell me that I shouldn’t place much faith in the Easter Bunny.

I have to admit that the weirdest thing about these “old family recipes” is the notion that an “old family recipe” is something unique, even to a very old family.

Well, sure. When I begged my mom for the recipe for her tart ‘n’ tangy lemon meringue pie, she said, “I just use the one on the corn starch box.”

Those back-of-the-box recipes have been test-kitchened up the ying-yang, and some of ‘em are as old as dirt. They obviously work pretty well, and there’s nothing wrong with offering them up, as long as you give credit where it’s due. (Unless it’s the Nestle’s Tollhouse cookie recipe, because they will cut you.)

But to pass off trendy, nouvelle cuisine recipes as old family favorites is laughably lame.

To be fair to the poor staffer who submitted the recipes, a dead-trees magazine like Parents has a hefty lead-time, so when the news broke about the recipes on the Web site, it was probably too late to retract the cookie deal.

But I’m still snickering about their being taunted a second time!

Oh, and the final touch on the Double Chocolate Fudge Blackout Wake Up At Betty Ford Behind Bars Bars is a dusting of Win!

I’ll provide a green bean casserole, and dip, of course.

The spinach and artichoke one, with mayo and cream cheese, right? That shit is almost as awesome as those sausage & cheese balls with Bisquick.

We do have recipes that are from the time of my mothers forebearers, but it’s mostly Chinese home cooking, which usually involves Kikkoman, dry sherry, onions, garlic, etc.