Esquire's Political Thanksgiving Recipes from 1984, Served Cold
In a move oddly prescient of the HuffPo's model—soliciting mundane content from famous names to make ya look—Esquire is posting celeb and political Thanksgiving recipes from its 1984 issue—Walter Mondale, Nancy Reagan, William Styron, et al. Mmm, tastes like morning in America and trickle-down economics! It raises so many questions: Was Bill Blass being serious with his homoerotic recipe for "Hot Giant Pecans"? Wait, Ted Turner's Applesauce Cake? Was hardline conservative William F. Buckley's recipe for "Thanksgiving Pheasant with Chestnut Cornbread Stuffing" flavored with the blood of the innocent? As it turns out, it's currant jelly:
William F. Buckley's Thanksgiving Pheasant: Smear the pheasants with butter, salt, and pepper. Place the birds in a shallow roasting pan. Spoon on a mixture of one cup currant jelly, one cup orange juice, one-half cup lemon juice. (These proportions are for four pheasants.) Roast about fifty minutes at 400 degrees, basting often.
And here's former Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown's incredibly depressing recipe for "Skinny Hot Buttered Rum":
Into a mug or a cup put: • 1 tablespoon "butter" made from Butter Buds • 1 packet of Equal • 1 oz. rum Put a teaspoon in the mug. Fill to the brim with boiling water. Add a few cloves on top. Savor.
"Make sure to vomit back up after savoring." [Photo: asliceofcherrypie's Flickr]