Summer Vacation Foods in the 1980s

• According to "Betty Crocker's Working Woman's Cookbook," summer vacation suppers in the 1980s included eggs and rice salad, ice coffee, berries chantilly, marinated whole tomatoes, and oatmeal-raisin muffins.
• The cookbook also listed popular 1980s party dishes such as special dinners, which included pork scalloppini, stuffed zucchini, buttered spaghetti, salad with walnuts, and strawberry cream, as well as weekend brunches, which included eggs-stuffing casserole, broccoli spears, bacon or sausage, fruit and spinach salad, and spiced coffee. Popular "plan-ahead dinner" dishes included savory beef short ribs, carrot salad, poppy seed noodles, green beans, and ice cream squares, while dinner plans for guests included brie with almonds, fruited pot roast, lettuce and mushroom salad, berry-almond dessert, broccoli spears with lemon, potato puffs, and frozen daiquiri.

• A Foodnetwork article on popular 1980s foods mentioned that pudding pops, artificially flavored fruit snacks, tri-color pasta salads, freezer cakes, sloppy joes, and a seven-layer dip that included beans, guacamole, sour cream, salsa or pico de gallo, grated cheddar cheese, black olives, and either sliced lettuce, green onions, or jalapeños were great for summer vacations.
• The food magazine, Kitchn, agreed with Foodnetwork, but also added spinach dip, blackened Cajun seafood, pasta salad, pizza rolls, poppy seed dressing and raspberry vinaigrette, and pesto to the list of popular 1980s food.
• According to Taste of Home, salads were perfect during the summers and the "real star" was vinaigrette that consisted of blueberry preserves and maple syrup, which went "great with a fresh baguette and a frosty glass of minted lemonade." Also, pizza salads were great summer dishes, too.
• According to The Daily Meal, snack foods and beverages became popular in the 1980s, including Capri Sun, sundried tomatoes in salads and pastas, and fruit snacks.

Summer Vacation Foods in the 1990s

• The concept of stacking food on top of each other, also known as tall food, started in the early 1990s. Fruit pyramids, salads piled like mountain ranges, and soft-shelled crabs placed on pillars of grilled squash made for great party foods. In 1995, for its business-class service in the summer, United Airlines served "pasta casserole so high that the lids of the dinner trays popped off when flight attendants pulled them out of the oven."
• According to Foodnetwork, summer vacation wasn't official until freezers were full of multi-colored freeze pops. The 90s also made after-school snacks and grab-and-go breakfasts popular such as Eggo waffles, bagel bites, and hot pockets.
• The food magazine, Kitchn, agreed with Foodnetwork, but also added chicken Caesar salad, molten chocolate cake, and salads with cranberries, pecans, goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette to the list of popular 1990s food.
• According to Taste of Home, barbecued chicken pizzas and tropical fusion salad with spicy tortilla ribbons were perfect during summer vacations in the 1990s, as well as crunchy Asian chicken salad, pomegranate cosmos, pizza rolls, fish sticks, chocolate-raspberry crème brûlée, veggie bean burgers, frozen yogurts, and peach smoothies.
• In the United States, southerners used "Coca-Cola in everything from barbecue braises to sheet cakes" in the 1990s.