Robert Carrier’s Menu Planner: Iced Tomato Vodka, Steak au Poivre & Blueberry and Caramel Cream (1984)

To close out National Cookbook Month, I present to you Robert Carrier’s Menu Planner.

I know very little about Robert Carrier. Although he is American born and raised he found fame in Europe. I had never heard of him growing up.

This cookbook is rather fun. It’s huge. (it weighs nearly 5 pounds) contains 300 recipes. The cover boasts that there are so many that they can be mixed and matched in nearly a million different menu combinations!!!

Also, it doesn’t have pages, it has spiral-bound cards.

It’s a food flip-book.

Fun for the whole family (seriously–Mr. Sauce’s niece played with this cookbook for quite a while–she busied herself by putting post-its on the photos she liked).

A little flip and a little flop and I settled upon this menu:

Appetizer: Iced Tomato Vodka

I selected this recipe because it is literally an ice Bloody Mary. Literally.

I took notes.

Notes on the recipe:
-used more than drops of Worcestershire–killed the last of the bottle.
-4 ice cubes? What giant ice cubes do they have in England?
-1/2 jalapeno, seeded, for green pepper
-Two 11oz cans of tomato juice.
-juice of 1 lemon

Tasting notes:
Very refreshing
It is frozen chunky to be eaten with spoon. I would what this would be like as an actual slushy.
I think the consistency is bothering me. I’m actively chewing it. Yes, consistency is weird. Flavor okay. Glad I stopped at one lemon. The pieces of ground peppercorns even seem big. I don’t like chewing this.
A sorbet is intriguing–maybe this would be great with all the ingredients equally blended.

Entree: Steak au Poivre

No notes.
But I did go out and buy watercress specifically for this. Those are mushrooms. I remember this was good. My favorite bit was the pats of garlic butter because I had the right baby cookie cutters.

Dessert: Blueberry and Caramel Cream

I picked this dessert because it wasn’t too labor-intensive and I had blueberries and Cool Whip in the fridge. I don’t know enough about Mr. Carrier to know whether or not he’d be absolutely appalled that I used Cool Whip. But I don’t care.

Making the caramel was easier than I thought and smacking it with a rolling pin was quite satisfying. It made it fancy.

I want to delve into this cookbook further. Maybe over the winter I’ll do a random number generator type of thing and end up with a Franken-menu. Or I can give it to Mr. Sauce’s niece and she can pick the dishes for me.