America’s Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776^•. With the declaration, we were independent in spirit, even if a lot of work still had to be done to force the world, especially England, to recognize our independence.

As 1976 approached, people began making plans to celebrate our 200th anniversary. The freedom train traveled coast to coast and a wagon train from every state traveled to Pennsylvania. Tall ships were prepped for public viewing in Operation Sail.

And a lot of albums of patriotic songs, products in patriotic colors, and magazines with patriotic themes, hit the supermarkets, newsstands, and record stores. I still remember fondly checking out Dallas Corey’s record album from the library several times, to listen to “The History of the American Revolution” in song. Because of that album, when I saw Mel Gibson’s The Patriot I knew immediately it was partly based on the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion. Musical history does help!

Sadly, very few movies celebrated the bicentennial. 1776 the Musical^• was a 1969 movie release. But there were attempts at short animation and films. And television got into the game with shorts such as The Bicentennial Minute.

It wasn’t just the bicentennial. It was also the seventies.

Johnny Cash was Grand Marshall of the U.S. Bicentennial Parade in DC, and there were parades and fireworks in towns and cities and villages all across the United States. My mom dressed us up as Uncle Sam, and my dad got his old Model T working well enough for us to ride in the village parade.

We were not alone in wearing the colors and resurrecting the past. Local church groups got into the game with cookbooks commemorating the bicentennial. Do an eBay search on bicentennial cookbook and you’ll find lots of them.¹ I’m just old enough to remember 1976, and over the last couple of years I’ve picked up several of these bicentennial community cookbooks at local sales, augmenting my home town’s bicentennial book that I’ve had for decades.

They are a fascinating glimpse into the mindset of the time. Some of them include special sections for bicentennial recipes; others mention the bicentennial only on the cover. Most seem to have come out in 1976 itself, but I have one published in 1975. The Fruitport Ladies Auxiliary of VFW Post 7803 knew how to plan ahead!

In three years, in 2026, we’ll be celebrating America’s sestercentennial.² It seems appropriate to include recipes from fifty years ago in those celebrations. The cookbooks I’ll be using are:

1. The Fruitport Bicentennial Cook Book from Fruitport, Michigan.
2. The Garvin County Bicentennial Recipe Book from Garvin County, Oklahoma.
3. The Benton Harbor-St. Joseph Bicentennial Cookbook from Benton Harbor, Michigan.
4. America’s Bicentennial Cook Book from Hesperia, Michigan.

As you can see, there’s a distinct bias toward Michigan in my collection. That’s because I grew up in Michigan. It means that when I see a Michigan cookbook it’s more likely to catch my eye. And of course I’m more likely to see such cookbooks, since community cookbooks are more likely to be found in the community they were made for.

Technically, I found the Benton Harbor cookbook in Casa Grande, Arizona. But for many Michiganders, Arizona (and Florida) are winter extensions of our home state. It’s what the term snowbird describes.

You can probably find a lot of bicentennial books from your area at local yard sales, estate sales, and auctions. I expect them to become more popular in the next few years. I’d love to see some new sestercentennial cookbooks for 2026—with modern recipes, older recipes, memories, and histories. A real celebration of America.

It’s easy to make fun of old food, especially old food from the seventies. The things they did with gelatin! But they had their reasons. Some of it was probably economical—gelatin can extend a couple of servings into several servings—but some of it is that gelatin is a means of protecting food from the ravages of time and the elements.

Summer is a great time for guacamole, for example, but it changes color quickly and especially in the heat of an outdoor picnic. What we need is a sort of “stabilized guac”, like stabilized whipped cream. Well, Garvin County has your back! One of the most surprising recipes I tried for this blog post is the Jellied Guacamole from the Garvin County book.

Jellied Guacamole

Servings: 18
Preparation Time: 8 hours
Mrs. Robert Clinton
Review: Garvin County Extension Home-Makers Bicentennial Recipe Book 1976 (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• 2 packages plain gelatin
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 cups boiling water
• 4 cups mashed avocado
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• Hot pepper sauce to taste

Steps

1. Soften the gelatin in cold water.
2. Dissolve in the boiling water.
3. Mash avocado with lemon juice.
4. Add salt, hot pepper sauce, and gelatin.
5. Chill until firm.

Perfect for Halloween, not so much for Independence Day. I’d forego the weird molds if I were you.

Jellied guacamole sounds completely unappetizing. I would never have made it if it hadn’t crossed my eye while looking for weird recipes for this blog post. It occurred to me that for an outdoor picnic on a warm day it was just crazy enough it might work. It turns out that the gelatin doesn’t change the flavor. It may make it lighter, because you can more easily whip guacamole when it contains gelatin. And it also seems to make the guacamole hold its color and flavor longer.

Much longer.

I made this recipe on a Wednesday. The recipe calls for putting it in a mold. I put it into one main mold and two smaller ones for testing. I ate half of the first of the smaller molds the next day, and the leftovers only slowly turned darker (and remained green) over the next two days as I finished it. On Sunday morning, I unmolded the remaining small one, to see if the big one was likely okay enough to bring to a neighbors for Christmas dinner. It was still green, so I unmolded the big one, in its full seventies glory.

I always have trouble with molds that aren’t mostly gelatin, as you can see from the photos. They either don’t come out without force, causing the molded dish to tear. Or I have to put them in lukewarm water so long that they start melting, making them look like something out of a wax horror movie.

There is, however, no reason to mold this guacamole unless you need it specially shaped. The point of guacamole is for dipping or spreading on something else, and the same is true of this jellied guacamole. It’s very simple, and almost certainly meant for adding your own special spices. But at its base it’s avocado, lemon juice, a touch of hot sauce (it calls for Tabasco, I used Melinda’s), and plain gelatin.

It was great on chips, great on bread, and great in French omelets. And you can make it well ahead of time whether you mold it or not.

For something else snackable that looks like it came from 1976, the Benton Harbor Cheese-Olive Puffs are very tasty. If you have a pickle tray, they’re a great accompaniment. They’re basically stuffed olives wrapped in paprika-flavored cheese dough. The recipe says “serve warm”. They do not have to be served warm. Just make sure you bake them until they’re slightly crunchy.

Cheese-Olive Puffs

Servings: 24
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Betty Moore
Review: Benton Harbor Bicentennial Cookbook (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• ¼ lb grated cheese
• ¼ cup soft butter
• ½ cup flour
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp paprika
• 24 stuffed olives

Steps

1. Mix the cheese, butter, flour, salt, and paprika to make a dough.
2. Wrap one teaspoon of dough around each olive.
3. Place on ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake at 400° for 10-15 minutes.

Also for that pickle tray, bread-and-butter pickles are easy to make, and far better than commercial brands. The One-Gallon Pickles in the Fruitport book can be made in as little as three days. Easy, and they can easily be made in bulk.

Fruitport Bread & Butter Pickles

Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Mrs. June Lykens and Thelma Featherstone
Review: Bicentennial Cook Book, Fruitport Ladies Auxiliary Post 7803 (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp salt
• 1½ cup vinegar
• 1½ cup sugar
• ½ tsp. celery seed
• ½ tsp. dry mustard
• ½ tsp. turmeric
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1½ lbs sliced cucumbers

Steps

1. Put salt, vinegar, sugar, celery seed, mustard, and turmeric in a half-gallon or two-quart jar.
2. Shake to mix.
3. Add onions and cucumbers.
4. Swirl gently to mix.
5. Store in the refrigerator.
6. Swirl (without opening) once each day for three to seven days.

If you have a cheese plate, some herb crackers might be in order. They’re straight out of the whole grain movement of the seventies, that almost resurrected local whole grain suppliers such as El Molino Mills.

Herb Crackers

Servings: 24
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Mrs. John W. Fowler, Sr.
Review: Garvin County Extension Home-Makers Bicentennial Recipe Book 1976 (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• ½ cup rye flour
• ½ cup fine corn meal
• ¾ tsp salt
• ½ tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp caraway seeds
• ¼ tsp dill weed
• ¼ tsp tarragon
• ¼ cup oil
• 5 tbsp cold water
• more caraway seeds

Steps

1. Mix the rye flour, corn flour, salt, yeast, caraway, dill, and tarragon.
2. Mix the oil and the water.
3. Add to dry ingredients and stir with a fork until a ball is formed.
4. Roll onto floured board.
5. Cut into squares or shapes.
6. Top with more caraway seeds.
7. Bake on a lightly-oiled cookie sheet 400° for about 8 minutes.

I personally enjoy grazing the sweets table at picnics as much as the savory table. That means cookies, brownies, and bars.

If you want an iconic cookie for the sweets table, you can do a lot worse than the Fruitport book’s coconut oatmeal cookies. I compared them to an official Baker’s Coconut version and they came out the winner, mainly because I prefer oatmeal to coconut.

Fruitport Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Servings: 84
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Phyllis Loughmiller (Muskegon Heights, Michigan)
Review: Bicentennial Cook Book, Fruitport Ladies Auxiliary Post 7803 (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ cup soft butter
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1½ cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2½ cup rolled oats
• 1 cup coconut

Steps

1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3. Add dry ingredients, vanilla, oats and coconut.
4. Drop by teaspoons (½ oz) on ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake 10 minutes at 375°.

If you don’t like coconut at all in your oatmeal cookies, crisp oatmeal cookies with dried cranberries are one of the cookies I make most.

Oatmeal Cranberry Crisps

Servings: 48
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Mary Starks
St. Mary’s Altar Society Cookbooks
America’s Bicentennial Cook Book Featuring Favorite Recipes From Hesperia, Michigan

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 tbsp cold water

Steps

1. Mix butter, brown sugar, and eggs well.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into creamed mixture alternately with oatmeal.
3. Mix in cranberries, vanilla, and water.
4. Drop from teaspoons onto a lightly greased baking sheet.
5. Flatten with a fork dipped in cold water.
6. Bake 375° for ten minutes.

No-bake cookies are also always a hit, and these are my favorite, from my hometown America’s Bicentennial book.

No-Bake Chocolate Cookies

Servings: 30
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Adele Yob
St. Mary’s Altar Society Cookbooks
America’s Bicentennial Cook Book Featuring Favorite Recipes From Hesperia, Michigan

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa
• ½ cup milk
• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1 tsp vanilla

Steps

1. Mix butter, sugar, cocoa, and milk.
2. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.
3. Add oatmeal and vanilla.
4. Drop quickly from spoon onto waxed paper

For completely non-oatmeal cookies, try some sour milk sugar cookies. Sour milk was a common ingredient back then, and it seems to have been forgotten (or actively denigrated) in modern cookbooks. I’ve found that it really helps make a beautiful sugar cookie or muffin.

Sour Milk Sugar Cookies

Servings: 48
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Ursuline Rapes
St. Mary’s Altar Society Cookbooks
America’s Bicentennial Cook Book Featuring Favorite Recipes From Hesperia, Michigan

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour milk
• 1 tsp soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 2-½ cups flour

Steps

1. Mix ingredients in order.
2. Drop by large teaspoons onto greased baking sheet.
3. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.

Rounding out the sweet finger foods, Benton Harbor’s baked rice krispie cookies are a real treat.

Baked Rice Krispie Cookies

Servings: 0
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Jan Pintcke
Review: Benton Harbor Bicentennial Cookbook (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups Rice Krispies
• 1-½ cups oatmeal
• 1 cup coconut

Steps

1. Cream the shortening.
2. Add the sugars gradually.
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix in the baking powder, soda, salt, and flour.
5. Fold in the Rice Krispies, oatmeal, and coconut.
6. Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.

You will also want some desserts on the sweets table for after the meal. There will of course have to be pies. Pies were commonly made with canned fillings in a baked or unbaked shell. For a unique pie shell, consider a coconut pie crust. Coconut, like gelatin, was a lot more common, in my experience, in the seventies than it is today.

Fruit crumbles were also very common to the era. The rhubarb crumble I’m recommending is especially nostalgic for me: it’s not just from my hometown bicentennial cookbook, it was contributed by my mother. We ate a lot of rhubarb growing up, and it was an ingredient I never grew tired of.

When it comes to the main meal, coleslaw is de rigueur for these events. It’s far easier to add to a paper or styrofoam plate than a lettuce salad or built salad. The cole slaw in the Benton Harbor book is a real winner, especially for those who don’t like mayonnaise.

Sweet Cole Slaw

Servings: 16
Preparation Time: 3 hours
Mary Houtz
Review: Benton Harbor Bicentennial Cookbook (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• 2 to 2-½ lbs cabbage
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 large onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped jalapeño
• salt and pepper
• 1-½ cup sugar
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup salad oil
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp celery seed

Steps

1. Shred the cabbage into a bowl.
2. Shred the bell peppers and lay on top.
3. Shred the onion and lay on top.
4. Sprinkle the chopped jalapeño on top.
5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. Mix the sugar, vinegar, salad oil, mustard, and celery seed.
7. Pour over the vegetables.
8. Cover, and let stand two hours.
9. Mix well and store in refrigerator.

If you prefer a mayonnaise cole slaw, however, consider my aunt’s cole slaw dressing.

Cole Slaw Dressing

Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Maryann Bisson
St. Mary’s Altar Society Cookbooks
America’s Bicentennial Cook Book Featuring Favorite Recipes From Hesperia, Michigan

Ingredients

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp dill seed
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ½ head of cabbage

Steps

1. Shred approximately ½ head of cabbage, depending on size.
2. Blend the mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and spices thoroughly.
3. Mix with the shredded cabbage.

Cabbage isn’t just for coleslaw. For a hot dish, the Benton Harbor cabbage in cheese sauce is also amazing.

Cabbage in Cheese Sauce

Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Betty Moore
Review: Bicentennial Cook Book, Fruitport Ladies Auxiliary Post 7803 (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• 1 large head cabbage
• boiling salted water
• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• a few grains pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 1-½ cup grated sharp cheddar

Steps

1. Shred the cabbage.
2. Cover with boiling salted water.
3. Cook about eight minutes until crisp-tender.
4. Drain.
5. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then blend in the flour, salt, and pepper.
6. Slowly add the milk and cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened.
7. Add the cheese and stir until melted.
8. Add the cabbage and mix well.

And fruit salads abounded, especially fruit salads in creamy gelatin. The creamy orange salad in the Fruitport book can be easily mixed with fruit, coconut, marshmallows, whatever you want, for a beautiful fruit salad on the main table.

Creamy Orange Filling or Salad

Servings: 8
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Jean Anderson
Review: Bicentennial Cook Book, Fruitport Ladies Auxiliary Post 7803 (Jerry@Goodreads)
Bicentennial Pie for Pi Day

Ingredients

• 1 gelatin packet
• ⅓ cup sugar
• zest and juice of two oranges
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup cold water
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup whipping cream
• ½ cup chopped macadamia nuts.

Steps

1. Mix the gelatin and sugar together.
2. Dissolve in boiling water.
3. Mix in the juice, zest, and cold water.
4. Add cream cheese and beat until smooth.
5. Refrigerate until partially set.
6. Whip the cream and fold into the partially set gelatin.
7. Pour into a pre-baked pie crust, or mix with fruit.
8. Chill until firm.
9. Sprinkle macadamia nuts over top.

You can also use the basic recipe, perhaps mixed with berries, for a pie filling. All you need to do is pour it into a prebaked shell—such as the coconut shell, above.

A classic dish for the main table is barbecued franks and beans. This is pure comfort food, and is treated as much as a salad as a meat dish.

Barbecued Franks and Beans

Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Colleen Edwards
Review: Bicentennial Cook Book, Fruitport Ladies Auxiliary Post 7803 (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 medium onion
• 1 tbsp flour
• ½ cup tomato sauce
• ½ cup beef bouillon
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tsp sugar
• 1 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup drained kidney beans
• ½ lb franks, cut diagonally

Steps

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet.
2. Add the onion and sauté until tender.
3. Blend the flour with the tomato sauce, bouillon, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, chili powder, and salt.
4. Stir quickly into the onion in the skillet.
5. Add the kidney beans and franks.
6. Simmer covered just until heated through.

But for vegetables, squash is a great summer food. This squash casserole from Garvin County is very simple; as it stands it relies heavily on the flavors of squash and tomato soaking into the rice. It could easily (and I suspect often was) spiced up with spices such as paprika or nutmeg.

Squash Casserole

Servings: 9
Preparation Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Evelyn Brooks
Review: Garvin County Extension Home-Makers Bicentennial Recipe Book 1976 (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• ½ cup uncooked rice
• 2 medium yellow squash
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped onion
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp sugar

Steps

1. Place dry rice in an 8 or 9-inch pan.
2. Slice squash over rice.
3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion, and butter.
4. Cover with sliced tomatoes.
5. Sprinkle with sugar.
6. Add water.
7. Cover and bake 45 minutes at 350°.
8. Uncover and top with cracker crumbs and cook until brown.

And of course no picnic or pot-luck is complete without fried chicken. This recipe is a geographical double whammy for me. Mrs. Mary E. Wilson submitted it to the Benton Harbor cookbook—from Dallas, Texas. Crunchy and lemony and very buttery. This is one of those recipes where the skin is the best part. It’s easy to make ahead of time in the oven; and while I haven’t tried it, I suspect it would be good over the grill basting it occasionally with the lemon barbecue sauce.

Lemon-Barbecue Chicken

Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Ms. Mary E. Wilson
Review: Benton Harbor Bicentennial Cookbook (Jerry@Goodreads)

Ingredients

• Chicken
  • ½ cup butter
  • 2-½ lb frying chicken
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
• Sauce
  • ½ cup lemon juice
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp onion, minced
  • 1 tsp salt

Steps

1. Cut the chicken into pieces.
2. Melt the butter in a shallow baking pan while preheating the oven to 400°.
3. Whisk the flour, salt, and pepper together.
4. Coat the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour.
5. Place skin down in a single layer in the baking pan.
6. Bake 30 minutes at 400°.
7. Meanwhile, mix the lemon juice, oil, garlic, onion, and salt for the sauce.
8. Turn the chicken skin up and pour the sauce over.
9. Bake another 20-30 minutes, until tender.

As you think about your July 4 meal this year, consider what you’re going to do for the sestercentennial in three years. The lead-up to the bicentennial in 1975 and 1976 was inspiring to live through as a child. It’s up to us to make our 250th as inspiring to children today as the 200th was in 1976. And to ensure that America and its ideals are still worth celebrating after 300 years for today’s children to relay to their children’s children in 2076!