There are arguments in American kitchens that never really end. They just go quiet for a few years, then something stirs them back to life. In the spring of 2026, that something was a wave of tuna noodle casserole recipes flooding food sites, and right behind them came the same question that has divided Midwestern families since at least the Eisenhower administration: what goes … [Read more...] about The Casserole Topping War Is Back and Grandma’s Version Is Winning
Nostalgic & Old-School Recipes
Howard Johnson’s Fed a Generation of Road-Trippers. Here’s What Vanished From the Menu.
Of the Of the more than 1,000 Howard Johnson's restaurants at their peak in the early 1970s that once lined American highways, fewer than a handful remain today. that once lined American highways, fewer than a handful remain today. At their peak, those orange roofs and aquamarine spires were as reliable a landmark as a church steeple, more so, in some stretches of the … [Read more...] about Howard Johnson’s Fed a Generation of Road-Trippers. Here’s What Vanished From the Menu.
If You Grew Up in the 1960s, You Ate These 9 Canned Dishes Every Single Week
The Campbell's Soup can sat on the second shelf of every American pantry in 1965, right next to the cream of mushroom, the evaporated milk, and the French-fried onions. Nobody thought twice about reaching for it. Opening a can wasn't laziness; it was the whole point. After decades of wartime rationing, then the long stretch of postwar abundance that followed, canned goods felt … [Read more...] about If You Grew Up in the 1960s, You Ate These 9 Canned Dishes Every Single Week
What Grandma Cooked Every Night Was Later Flagged by Nutritionists All 15 of These Were on the Table
In 1955, the American dinner table looked like abundance itself. A pot roast glistening under overhead light. Creamed corn from a can. A Jell-O mold trembling on a cut-glass plate. White bread, already sliced. Margarine, because someone said it was better for you than butter. Nobody questioned any of it. These were the foods of prosperity, the reward for surviving the … [Read more...] about What Grandma Cooked Every Night Was Later Flagged by Nutritionists All 15 of These Were on the Table
12 Things the Church Potluck Casserole Tells Us About How America Used to Eat Together
Of all the foods that have passed through American kitchens in the last hundred years, none has been written about less and remembered more than the church potluck casserole. Food writers have spent decades celebrating Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon, the rise of California cuisine, the arrival of sriracha on every table in the country. But the dish that actually fed most … [Read more...] about 12 Things the Church Potluck Casserole Tells Us About How America Used to Eat Together