Oh, The Glamourous Life!

Dear Constant Reader,

My mother recently sent me some of the family cookbooks. I’ve really enjoyed flipping through them, seeing the stained pages of frequently-used recipes and my mom’s notes. One of them was Playhouse Cookery, a community cookbook from the nursery school my sister and I went to. I have a fondness for community cookbooks and cuisine from the 1970s, that, plus the personal connection (not to mention my surprise that it still existed), delighted me immensely.

Last weekend, Ava had a barbecue and I wanted to bring this dip, which my mother used to make for parties. It was contributed by my sister’s teacher (personal connection again) and uses herbs that I have in abundance in my garden. 

To make Murphy’s Herbed Cream Cheese Dip, you will need

garlic, onion, salt, dry mustard, cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, olives, thyme, Tabasco, parsley, chives
You may notice that there are no olives in the picture. My mom never used them and I don’t either. If you want to use olives, I suggest the classic pimento-stuffed green. (Also, that’s not Tabasco — I have no idea where our bottle went — so I subbed a similar hot sauce, label turned away in shame)

Mince the onion and garlic, chop the olives, and mix everything together. That’s it! It’s a bit easier to mix if you let the cheese cheese come up to room temperature.

I recommend making the dip in advance. A night in the fridge improves the flavor, but it’s also the sort of thing you could throw together pretty quickly.

I like to serve it with crudités, but it’s also thick enough to use as a spread on crackers.

The book Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads by Silvia Lovegren sums up cuisine in the 1970s as “gooshy” — soft, creamy, rich, and goopy. While I disagree with some of her snarky takes, this dip does kind of fall into that category.

Here’s the original recipe. I always double the amounts.  

Murphy’s Herbed Cream Cheese Dip
2 clove garlic, minced
1-2 tsp minced onion
1/4 tsp salt
pinch dry mustard
1 (3 oz)cream cheese
1/4 c mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
2 T chopped olives
1/4 tsp thyme
dash tabasco
parsley
chives

Mix ingredients together. Good with cold vegetables.
–Ronnie Stern

The tiny amount of thyme suggests that it’s supposed to be dried. I like to use fresh because I have a very thriving thyme plant. If you also use fresh thyme, add three times as much and give the leaves a little chop after you pull them off the a stem. The parsley and chives are up to your whim. I never measure and just sorta add enough.

So, who was Murphy? No idea, but I’m happy his? her? recipe lives on.

Enjoy!

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Dear Constant Reader,

Today is Memorial Day, when many people usually have a barbecue or potluck to celebrate the start of summer.* That’s not going to happen so much this year. I’m going to make a few canapés and hors d’oeuvres for two to enjoy in the backyard with some cocktails. This recipe takes me back to my childhood.

When I first had these tasty bites, they were made by Mary Browne, a friend of my parents. Mary was a great hostess and many of her dishes that guests praised highly were simpler than you might think**. This was one of them. It’s so simple, there isn’t even really a recipe.

You need cocktail rye, chopped onion, mayonnaise, and Swiss cheese.

Spread some mayo on a slice of the bread. Sprinkle it with chopped onion. Top it with a piece of cheese the same size as the bread and stick the whole thing under the broiler until the cheese bubbles. That’s it!

Serve them piping hot. Something magical happens when you heat everything up. Even if you think you don’t like mayonnaise or raw onion, you might like these.

You can, of course, use any kind of bread you have, but cut an average-sized slice into quarters. Similarly, use any kind of sliced or shredded cheese you like. No onion? Any allium will do (but go light if you’re using garlic). I’ve seen variants on this that add seasoning the mayo or add other ingredients (like crumbled bacon!) to the onion, but I’m kind of a purist.

I think I’m also going to make a few Bedroll Specials and some White Bean Dip to have with crudité. Are you making anything special today?

These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

* I have nothing against a holiday weekend celebrating the start of summer; I just wish it wasn’t the day we are supposed to honor our military dead.
**The exception was her amazing angel biscuits. She even gave me the recipe and I couldn’t get it right.