Aunt Betty’s Comfort Kitchen

From the back of the box

Half of these recipes were born from a package label — the dip on the soup-mix box, the fudge on the marshmallow jar. A little history from Betty’s pantry:

• Margarine — cheaper than butter and sold as the modern, heart-smart choice, it ruled mid-century kitchens; Parkay was on every table. Betty’s recipes keep it, though butter works just as well.
• Lipton Onion Soup Mix — in the 1950s someone stirred a packet into sour cream and “California Dip” was born. Lipton printed it on the box, and a soup mix quietly became a dip empire.
• Ro*Tel — canned tomatoes and green chilies out of Texas that, melted into a block of cheese, became the South’s default party dip.
• Cream of mushroom soup — the binder that built the casserole age. Campbell’s home economist Dorcas Reilly invented the green bean casserole with it in 1955, and it never left the holiday table.
• Marshmallow creme — the Fantasy Fudge recipe lived on the back of the jar for decades; a good deal of America’s fudge came straight off that label.
• Cool Whip — instant whipped topping, introduced in 1966. It turned “fold in the Cool Whip” into a recipe step all its own.