| Swinging '60s chicks with recipes! |
"Guaranteed to do more for the bachelor girl's social life than long-lash mascara or a new discotheque dress, Saucepans & the Single Girl tells how to handle the menu and the man when a Lover with a Leica comes to dinner or A Man with a Million drops in for an evening ... Here is the ideal kitchen guide for the gal who wants to make the leap from the filing cabinet to the flambe."
The filing cabinet? Well, remember, back in the early 1960s, most bachelor girls with careers were schoolteachers, nurses or secretaries (like Helen Gurley Brown before striking it rich with her first book). It took some clever scheming to go from making coffee for the office staff -- one of the complaints about having a "career" in this book -- to finding Mr. Right. And a man's heart is through his tummy, right?
The 188-page cookbook -- found at a recent estate sale for 50 cents -- has advice on selecting wines, giving intimate dinner parties, hosting brunches ("They're cheaper than a full-fledged dinner") and putting together the right guest list. There are also ideas for seductive "midnight suppers" to get a romantic interest interested in a late-night snack and, if not sex, possibly marriage. Author Judy Perry's mate succumbed to her lasagna; Jinx's guy fell for her stroganoff.
And what happened to these swingin' cookbook writers in later years? In 1968, Jinx and Judy wrote a follow-up book called How To Keep Him (After You've Caught Him) Cookbook and Jinx penned a couple of books about the Smothers Brothers (she had married their manager). Jinx and Judy updated their Saucepans & the Single Girl ("with apologies and explanations" according to The Boston Globe) in 2006.
