With the advent of the frozen, canned, freeze-dried and dehydrated instant dinners, the average housewife was overjoyed with her new found freedom from the bondage of her stove.  But they didn't always get it quite right:

I think they still make this, but some of the recipe ideas for the handy, new-fangled canned mincemeat seem a little frightening.

What could be lighter and cooler than mincemeat cheese pie and bran muffins?

I hope Aunt Peg brings her famous "orange chiffon pickled meat surprise pie" to the picnic!

I can honestly remember when this came out. It is my earliest memory of the power of the advertisement. I remember being about 3 years old in my living room in Toluca, Illinois.  I remember thinking how great this squeezy can of butter must be, since my humongous TV with the giant glowing turney-knob said so. I remember my mom bought some and we used it on the most perfect sweet corn in the world - the kind you only get in the corn fields of the Midwest in August.  The kind that prisoners ask for as their last meal before the chair.  And I remember it being the nastiest, greasiest substance I had ever put in my mouth.  The year was 1977, and I had tasted the bitter irony of American advertising. And it was foul.

Check out this little dancing, lying bastard.

 

French chefs everywhere endorse Monsieur Fake Butter Tub

 

 

And now for a beverage only satisfactory in an airport screwdriver or in Earth's orbit:

 

Tang Rice Stuffing.

I wonder why snack mix with Tang and "Crispy Critters" never caught on?

 

and my personal favorite, that I like to call "Ghetto Gravy"...