Has this ever happened to you? You’re in an antiques store, you see something from your childhood and say, “I had that growing up!” followed by “How can that possibly be an antique?”
The new exhibit at the Lakewood Heritage Center, “co*cktails and Casseroles: Entertaining in the 20th Century,” will elicit gasps of recognition from anyone who is old enough to remember the good ol’ 1900s. The vignettes range from the 1920s through the ’90s, complete with an art deco tea set, a full 1950s kitchen, and ’70s den furniture made from whiskey barrels. You can almost hear the ice tinkling in the co*cktail glasses and smell the casserole in the oven.
It’s a walk down memory lane, certainly, but seeing familiar household items in a museum setting can make a person feel lost in time. The decades seem to telescope in on themselves, bringing the faraway into focus. If things from your own life qualify as “museum artifacts,” what does that say about you?
But this exhibit is not just for old biddies and middle-aged ladies wondering where their youth has gone.
“Unless you’re 12 or younger, it’s already part of your history,” says curator Jamie Melissa Wilms, who, at 29, has made a career of studying the 20th century. She’s young enough to say setting up the exhibit “felt like I was moving out of college 20 different times.” But as a historian, she recognizes that “we don’t always see our own lives and possessions as history.”
It makes you think of all that we have thrown away. You wonder what happened to Dad’s record player and Mom’s mixer. Are they in a landfill somewhere? Waiting for the right hipster to buy them in a thrift store? Or they could be down in the basem*nt, along with Granny’s Singer sewing machine and the eight-track player.
We devalue our own history, leaving it to the next generation to decide what was a classic and what was kitsch.
Think about how telephones have evolved from hand-cranked wall models, to the Princess phone, to cordless models with long antennas — and then take a look at your cellphone. It, too, will have a place in the lineup.
Same for the iPod, which will fit right in alongside the Victrola, the hi-fi record player and that eight-track deck.
Some might say, “Oh, that junk? It’s long gone, and good riddance,” but for curators and historians like Wilms and Lorene Joos, these artifacts are more than just part of history; they illuminate it.
“One of the things we are trying to do is let people know that these things are valuable, they demonstrate what was happening at the time,” says arts curator Joos.
The idea for the exhibit sprang from a discussion of “co*cktails and diving into the history of the 20th century,” says Wilms. “We had the the idea to make it feel like you were walking into somebody’s house — the formal parlor, kitchen, patio, dining room, and we hid the men in their man cave.”
Each room represents a decade, as though a party is in progress, and the guests have just stepped out for a minute. In the ’50s kitchen, an apron is draped across the chair as though the mother has just taken a birthday cake out of the oven.
The 1969 brunch vignette captures the warm hues and Space Age ambitions of the modern style.
In the ’70s scene, a family prepares to welcome a Vietnam veteran home to a den furnished with a sofa, chairs and table made from Kentucky whiskey barrels purchased from the J.C. Penney catalog. Joos put some Life magazines on the ottoman and draped an Army jacket over one chair, but the room lacked something. “Then I found this ugly thing and it pulled it all together,” she says, laughing and pointing to a scrolled-iron co*cktail cart holding wooden goblets and an avocado-green Crock-Pot.
“It’s fun to hear people come through and say, “I had that!” says Wilms. “And it will help people 100 years from now understand the value of these things.”
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com
IF YOU GO: co*cktails and Casseroles: Entertaining in the 20th Century
Through Sept. 7, Lakewood Heritage Center Radius Gallery, 801 S. Yarrow Street, Lakewood, 303-987-7850; lakewood.org. Free
Recipes
Mild Green Chile Casserole
From the “co*cktails and Casseroles” recipe set, available at the Lakewood Heritage Center. Recipe from Janice Fields,makes 6-8 servings.
Ingredients
Cooking spray or olive oil
6 large flour tortillas
2-3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 4-ounce can sliced olives
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 10-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 14-ounce can evaporated milk or 1¼ cups half-and-half
1 4-ounce can mild or medium diced green chiles
Garnish: sour cream, guacamole and salsa
Directions
Spray a 2- to 3-quart casserole dish or 9-by-13-inch pan with cooking spray or coat with olive oil. Tear tortillas into quarters and cover all sides and bottom of casserole dish. Place a layer of shredded cheese on the bottom. Drain olives and spread over cheese.
In a large skillet, brown ground beef and chopped onion. Drain fat. Add soup and milk and bring to a simmer. Add green chiles and place mixture in casserole dish. Cover entire casserole with the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Let sit for a few minutes before cutting and serving. Top with sour cream, guacamole and salsa.
Yellow Squash Casserole
From “The American Century Cookbook,” by Jean Anderson, who says this recipe of her mother’s was “an all-time favorite down South.” Makes 4-6 servings.
Ingredients
6 medium yellow squash, trimmed and cut into ½-inch dice
1 large yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
cup water
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2 eggs, well-beaten
¾ cup soda cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
k teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Topping:
½ cup fine soda-cracker crumbs
4 teaspoons melted butter
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 6-cup casserole well, and set aside.
In a very large, heavy saucepan, cook squash and onion in water, covered, over moderately low heat 25 minutes, until soft. Drain well, mash, and mix in salt, pepper and butter. Beat in eggs. then stir in cracker crumbs, sugar and nutmeg. Spoon into casserole.
Make topping: Toss crumbs with melted butter and scatter evenly over casserole. Bake uncovered until nicely brown, 40-45 minutes.
Three-in-One Seafood Casserole
From “Helen Dollaghan’s Best Main Dishes,” by the late Denver Post food editor, published in 1980 but now out of print. Makes 6-8 servings.
Ingredients
1 cup dry white wine
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound uncooked scallops (thaw, if frozen)
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 3-ounce can sliced mushrooms (reserve liquid)
4 tablespoons flour
1 cup half-and-half
cup grated cheddar cheese
½ pound small cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp
½ pound cooked shelled crab, flaked (or lobster meat)
Directions
Combine wine, onion, parsley, salt and scallops in a large saucepan. Bring to a gentle bubbling (not boiling) point. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, just until scallops are done. Remove scallops from pan; cut in halves.
To the liquid in the pan, add 2 tablespoons of the butter, lemon juice and liquid drained from the mushrooms. Heat until butter melts. Add enough water to this to make 2 cups.
In another saucepan, melt remaining butter. Add flour. Stir a few minutes over moderate heat. Gradually add wine mixture and half-and-half. Cook, stirring, over moderate heat until thickened. Add cheese, stirring until cheese melts. Add scallops, mushrooms, shrimp and crab. Heat through. Serve in casserole dish.
El Diablo
For the green chile casserole, what else but a tequila co*cktail? From Michelle Baldwin of the Denver chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered co*cktails. Makes 1 drink.
Ingredients
1½ ounces tequila
½ ounce crème de cassis
½ ounce fresh lime juice
Ginger beer
lime wedge
Directions
Shake tequila, crème de cassis and lime juice with ice. Strain into a highball glass over ice. Top with ginger beer, garnish with a lime wedge.
Bourbon Sour
Pair with the yellow squash casserole. “The richness of the bourbon would go with the brown sugar but felt like the acid of the sour would cut the sweetness,” says Michelle Baldwin of the Denver chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered co*cktails. Makes 1 drink.
Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon
1 egg white
¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
¾ ounce simple syrup
Directions
Dry shake (no ice) all ingredients, add ice and shake again. Strain into a co*cktail glass, top with a dash of Angostura bitters.
Martinez
“I think stirred co*cktails go well with creamy food, and the Martinez has some sweetness to play off the salt,” says Michelle Baldwin, who chose this drink to go with the creamy seafood casserole. Makes 1 drink.
Ingredients
1½ ounces Ould Tom Gin
1½ ounces sweet vermouth
ounce maraschino or orange Curacao liqueur
Dash of orange bitters
Lemon twist
Directions
Stir in a mixing glass with ice. Strain into a co*cktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist
A few vintage co*cktails to help get into the spirit
What to drink while making these casseroles? We consulted with the Denver chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered co*cktails for ideas. Michelle Baldwin and Tara Curry worked hard (over co*cktails, no doubt) to come up with three vintage drinks that go with our recipes like French’s onions on a casserole.
On its website, lupec.com, the group states it is “dedicated to the drinks our mothers and grandmothers drank, the drinks we strive to save from extinction as a small measure of remembering those great women and their great co*cktail parties.” The Denver chapter also hosts fundraisers for “local and national organizations that look out for the health and welfare of women and children in the Denver metro area.”
Baldwin, whom some in Denver might know as burlesque star Vivenne Vavoom, sees the group as an extension of our mothers’ bridge clubs and knitting groups. “They probably had co*cktails, we’re just more obvious about it,” she says. “It’s interesting to explore those old drinks — like Stingers — nobody knows what’s in them anymore.” (FYI, a Stinger is just brandy and crème de menthe.)
Kristen Browning-Blas
