The Menu: The Wives of Los Alamos
This New Mexico-inspired menu brings you to the tables of the Los Alamos families during World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, wartime rationing changed the way families cooked, shopped, and gathered around the table. Fun fact: Cheerios, M&Ms, SPAM, and Rice Krispie Treats all made their debut during these years.
Drinks
Getting supplies to Los Alamos wasn’t easy, so Robert Oppenheimer kept it simple with his now-famous martini. Just a dash of vermouth, a squeeze of lime, and a touch of honey. Picture yourself at one of his dinner parties, raising a glass with the scientists and their families after a long day. Here’s to the women who built friendships and found moments of normal life in an extraordinary place. You can find the recipe at The Daily Pour.
Appetizer
Kick things off with a creamy hatch green chile dip from Taste and Tell made with New Mexico’s famous hatch chiles. Serve it with tortilla chips and watch it disappear. If you can’t find fresh hatch chiles, jarred Hatch chilies will do the trick. Just mix it all together by hand. For a little wartime nostalgia, add Taste of Home’s pimiento cheddar spread. It’s simple, comforting, and perfect on saltines or celery sticks.
Salad
Victory Gardens helped families stretch their food supply during World War II. Recipe Curio’s simple 1940s salad, made with fresh garden vegetables and a cider vinaigrette, is an easy way to bring a little of that history to your table.
Main
In 1955, the Los Alamos community published a cookbook called What’s Cooking. One of the recipes was a company casserole submitted by Elsie M. Tuck, whose husband, James Tuck, was a physicist on the Manhattan Project. You can find the original recipe on page 4 of the article. I adapted her recipe for today’s home cooks, check it out.
Dessert
For a sweet way to end the meal, try Allrecipes’ WWII oatmeal molasses cookies. During the war, white and brown sugars were hard to get, so many home bakers used molasses instead. The recipe lists walnuts and raisins as optional, add them. Or try New Mexico’s official state cookie, biscochitos. They’re like butter cookies with a hint of spice. You can find the recipe at Some the Wiser.
Whether you picked up this book for the history or the human stories, I hope this menu helped you picture what life might have been like in Los Alamos. These women didn’t know how history would remember their husbands or what the Manhattan Project would become. They simply kept building homes, friendships, and communities the best they could. Sometimes that’s the part of history worth remembering, too.
