Marinated Recipes: Oriental Chicken Legs, Spaghetti Salad, Fuzzy Navel Cake
Lots of marinated recipes in my 80s recipe box. This recipe box contains a combination of traditional cooking mixed with an interest in untraditional seasonings and a definite interest in Asian tastes. Still, they lack the pizazz of today’s hot spicy foods. Two come from a recipe box I found at a yard sale in Clovis, California and the spaghetti salad recipe in Salem, Oregon.
Oriental Chicken Legs, 1980s
- 1 6oz. frozen orange juice
- ¼ cup dry sherry
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 slice fresh ginger or 1/8 teaspoon ginger powder
- 2 Tablespoons corn starch
- 2 lbs. drumsticks (fryer)
Marinate 2 hours. Bake 350 degrees for 1 hour basting every 15 minutes.
My notes: add ½ cup soy sauce for a more salty taste, two chopped green onions and marinate an extra hour. Before adding chicken, reserve ½ cup of marinade for basting. Before baking drain the chicken, discarding the marinade. Originally, the recipe called for baking in marinade but that is no longer recommended.
Spaghetti Salad, Nancy Minahan, 1985, West Salem School
- 1 ½ lbs. spaghetti, cooked and drained
- Add: chopped
- green pepper, two ribs celery and two tomatoes
- ½ jar large Italian Dressing (Wishbone)
- 2/3-3/4 jar Shilling Salad Supreme
Mix and store overnight. May need additional dressing before serving.
There is nothing better than sulphur tea for the hair. It cures dandruff, promotes the growth, makes the hair soft and glossy and is very good to keep the hair from turning gray. Place pieces of camphor, cedarwood, tobacco leaves, bog myrtle or anything else strongly aromatic in the drawers of boxes where furs or other things to be preserved from moths are kept, and they will never sustain any harm. The Bride’s Cookbook, San Francisco, 1911
Fuzzy Navel Cake, 3/1/88
- 1 can chopped peaches (drain save liquid)
- ½ cup Peachtree Schnapps
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 1 cup sugar
- Combine above ingredients in glass container for 24 hours, covered
- 1 package deluxe cake mix (I used a white mix)
- 1 package small vanilla pudding mix
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup oil
- 1 cup chopped peaches from above mixture
- 1/3 cup liquid from above mixture
- 1 cup chopped pecans
Mix ingredients, place in greased & floured Bundt cake pan (Yes, the Bundt cake pan was still mainstream). Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes (45-50)
You may take ¼ cup remaining liquid mixture and 1 ½ cups sifted powdered sugar for a glaze.
The 1980s! Not only were recipes changing, mixing and evolving, so was the music scene. John Lennon’s death left the music world floundering for a time but the Hip Hop of Run DMC combined with Aerosmith was a real breakthrough.
Ann Marie Bezayiff received her BA and MEd from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is an author, blogger, columnist and speaker. Her columns, “From the Olive Orchard” and “Recycled Recipes from Vintage Boxes”, appear in newspapers, newsletters and on Internet sites. Ann Marie has also demonstrated her recipes on local television. Currently she divides her time between Western Maryland and Texas.