HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND!🌞🇺🇸
we're going way back with some retro recipes for your Labor Day picnic :)
I made a southern tomato pie last week after seeing a few circulating on TikTok. There’s something so perfectly mid-century end-of-summer about a savory pie using ripe tomatoes, bacon, dijon, cheddar, and egg layered into a flakey crust.
We were so inspired by the retro appeal of this quaint aesthetically pleasing pie that we went down the long rabbit hole of looking for more trendy recipes from our boomer parents’ youth. Particularly vintage fan favorites for potlucks, block parties, church luncheons, family reunions, and of course, with the holiday coming up, Labor Day get-togethers. In the end, we came up with a fun little list of throw-back recipes — with a few modern tweaks — to celebrate the end of summer (hint: I swear they called everything a “salad” back in the day). Enjoy!
Let’s start with the tomato pie that inspired this week’s Digest. Not to be confused with Sfincione Sicilian pizza from a few weeks ago — that’s commonly referred to by East Coasters as “tomato pie.” This here is a southern tomato pie, and it’s in a league of its own. A southern tomato pie uses classic American ingredients and tastes similar to another nostalgic favorite, grilled cheese and tomato soup.
To avoid a soggy crust, the tomatoes are roasted first to reduce their moisture content and create a more intense flavor. This may seem like an extra step, but it really does make a world of difference. The result is a wonderful homage to bygone eras and summer tomatoes.
Potato salad at a barbeque is as “American as Apple Pie.” However, this potato salad recipe is German and served warm or room temp in a tangy vinegar dressing instead of cold and mixed with mayo. While potato salad has long been a standard summer side, German potato salad has always been its popular alternative. You could even buy it in a can lol (what didn’t come in a can back then??)
This one was admittedly new to us….and has the most throw-back name ever. Introducing our first ‘Layered Salad for a Crowd.’
Obviously, with a name like that (also referred to as a ‘7-Layer Salad’), we were intrigued, but when we realized it was literally a ‘Layered Salad for a Crowd’, a salad layered inside a trifle dish to serve at a party— we were sold. We borrowed our Aunt’s trifle dish and when she assured us that “those salads are so good,” we knew we were in for a treat. You could really layer whatever kind of salad you want into a trifle dish, but the OG versions have tiers of iceberg lettuce, peas, tomato, hardboiled eggs, mayo, onions, cheese, and bacon. Okay, a layer of mayo caught us off guard too. Some recipes call for a mayo and sugar mix and others a mayo/sour cream/dill combo. In any case, we opted for a lighter dressing using blended cottage cheese (you know we love it), a ranch dressing spice packet, and a little milk. You can also store this salad in the refrigerator overnight and serve it the next day! I served mine fresh for lunch and it was delightful. But really, why did layering a salad in a trifle dish ever stop being trendy?!
We randomly had a hankering for ambrosia salad during the pandemic lockdown (my best guess is we saw it in a movie or show we binged lol). Unfortunately, we never got around to making it. Lucky for us, our research for throw-back recipes had us craving ambrosia salad all over again….because there’s nothing more retro than a cool-whipped-based “salad” with mini marshmallows and canned fruit!
If you ask anyone, desserts have never gone out of style. And neither has a good ol’ banana cream pie. Our mom LOVES banana cream pie. And so do we.
But I had to create a recipe that even she (a notoriously bad baker 😬) could make. So I came up with an incredibly simple 5-ingredient pie using a store-bought crust, an instant pudding/cool whip mixture, and fresh bananas. If you ask us, all the store-bought ingredients make this recipe even more authentic :)
THANKS FOR READING!
Cheers 🥂
Hil & Nat
Don’t forget you can access the entire recipe library with all your favs here.