Jr. Potato Boats

Ships Ahoy Mushroom Men!

Betty Crocker 's Cook book for Boys and Girls 1957
"Three Men in a boat"


I saved the best looking vintage kid's dish for last!

Most recipes I only make once and if they fail, what ever.  There wasn't going to be a next time anyway.  I just add the experience to my baking collective knowledge and figure that in the future it may come back into play to help me out somehow.
However, these potato boats...I wasn't going to let them kick my keister and did make them twice.  Their tricky feature is making those sails.  Look closely at the ship on the right, top sail, the original.  You see that crack right below the post?  It defies logic that it's still in place.  This should have been a hint that if even the food stylists couldn't get this feature to work then the housewives that like to make wacky food sculptures were going to have a hard time...never mind that this is a recipe book for kids!



This is the original "recipe", which isn't even the same look as the "color photograph on p. 159".

The first time I attempted these was while trying to interject some fun into our locked up lives.  It was about 2 months into quarantine and I had plans on putting an extra fun spin on the idea.  I told the Fam to find 3 "men" to put in their boats, instead of mushrooms.  PB had 3 little plastic weird creatures, Mr. Husband had 3 Simpson lego people, and I had 2 green aliens and a mini cow.  This is going to be great!  Then I started assembling the cheese sails which immediately cracked, tore, and slid down the poles.  I had to cancel potato boat fun dinner and we ate our plain baked boring potatoes in silence.  I was so bummed.  I could have just moved on but I really wanted another whack at making these.  I tried several different attempts.  I applied cling wrap on the back of the cheese for extra stability.  I tried cutting a hole in the cheese for the pole rather than punching the pole through the cheese.  None of it really worked well. Also had the major issue of the cheese sliding down.
In the end I used a large needle, a bit smaller that the pole to make something similar to a pilot hole for the poles.  I then used bits of cut apple/mushroom skewered on the poles in spots to hold up the cheese.
I was able to get this to hold together long enough to take a few quick photos before the sails flopped off.  Maybe a different kind of cheese would work but at this point I am done.  The original recipe called for a firm cheese but by the looks of their own photos that didn't seem too good of an idea, also I don't have that kind of cheese on hand.  At this point I've decided to wash my hands of this.  I prevailed, and have a photo to prove it.