As I was doing my ironing last night, it occurred to me that the casual clothes so many of us wear these days are actually not as easy to iron as were the more formal clothes of the '40s. So many of the "blouses" (for lack of a better word) that I wear are some sort of cotton blend with a soft knit texture. And anyone who's tried to iron a tee shirt knows that you're fighting a losing battle against wrinkles. As soon as you iron 'em out, they pop up again in new places! Ironing a fabric with a little more substance to it is much more simple. It sounds kind of ironic - as I'm sure all those vintage collars and plackets and pleats took time - but the fabrics must have been much satisfying to iron.
This morning's breakfast:
Prunes
Graham Muffin (the last of the leftovers)
Baked Eggs
I've never baked eggs before, so I wasn't sure what I'd find when I opened the oven. I didn't have any of the "individual baking dishes" recommended in the recipe, so I used a mini loaf pan and they turned out just fine. A little rubbery - I think I'll bake them at a slightly lower temperature next time - but still good. Do you think I could use something like a popover pan or muffin pan to make Baked Eggs next time? Or would they turn out better in some kind of ceramic or stoneware?
I set forth on my new mission this evening as I stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home from work with a very small list in hand. The manual doesn't have any recommendations for the homecoming shopper, but there are a few words of advice in The Good Housekeeping Housekeeping Book (1947):
Use all the time you need for marketing for these days and putting the food away. Wash and trim fresh vegetables and put them in the refrigerator ready for use.
That's a great idea. It'd certainly save you some time when it was time to put supper on the table or pack the family's lunch boxes. I didn't get any veggies this trip. Guess I'll have to get those crispers in my refrigerator ready for use next time...
7 comments:
That's a great tip about the cord on the iron, thanks!
Great blog you have here, I *love* the 1940's. (o:
yep, i'm sure it would have been much easier to iron when all your shirts weren't some kind of synthetic blend... that need a low heat and still end up looking wrinkled... or worst... get melted when you iron them too high (don't laugh, I have ruined at least 2 shirts doing this)
Elise, I'm right there with you!!
I like the idea of usuing marketing days specifically for food prep. Trimming and washing the vegetables, maybe even the fruit. Would make it a lot easier to sort through what's bad and what's not.
Do you have, or can you buy a ramekin? I checked my lat 1960s Joy of Cooking (a good cross-reference since my 1920 Fanny Farmer assumes a coal stove) and that's what they. suggest. The instructions are to butter the ramekin (any 1-cup, oven-proof dish should do) and place the egg in it into at pre-heated 350 degree oven for eight minutes.
Joy of Cooking does note that it's all to easy to get rubbery eggs, so don't feel too bad about it. I've been unable to soft-boil eggs lately simply because all my (vintage) cookbooks assume I'm using big farm eggs. Supermarket "jumbo" eggs are still much tinier than the eggs we got from ur chickens when I was growing up, so times need to be adjusted.
Michele, thank you so much!
Weenie, do I look like someone who would laugh at a shirt melter? I've got the remains of some kind of synthetic fabric scorched on to my iron as it is. :)
Emer, I like the idea of prepping the vegetables right up front, but I'm starting to wonder if it's really practical. I mean, if you trimmed all your celery stalks when you brought them home, wouldn't you have to re-trim the ends just before you used them? Washing? Definitely useful. Trimming? Maybe with certain veggies. If I can just sort out which...
Teru, I'm glad I'm not the only one with rubbery eggs. I like them weeeeeeeeeeeeell done, so tend to use a higher heat. I think I'll try baking them next time at less heat for a longer period and see if that doesn't do the trick. And a ramekin would probably do perfectly!
Oh, that's a good thing to remember about the iron cord!
About the eggs - I'm afraid half the fun of baked eggs is using the pretty porcelain or glass egg bakers! Keep an eye out at garage sales or secondhand shops. They are so cute and very functional - and with real egg shirrers you can add some bacon, cheese and cream on top and have a real treat for some breakfasts.
Prunes for breakfast! My grandmother taught me to make a warm fruit compote for breakfast in the winter - it would only take as long as your baked eggs, and you could use a very small saucepan. She would put our orange juice and some prunes sliced in half in the saucepan and bring it to boil while the rest of our breakfast was heating up and we would have warm fruit compote instead of cold fruit and cold fruit juice. On the weekends, she would cook down an apple and a pear in the orange juice and when they were soft, she would add the prunes to cook until heated through. Just a thought! Very simple and very good - I don't understand why it has to come in a shiny package to be considered fit to eat these days. You really cheer me up!!
I love the compote ideas --- especially cooking the prunes in orange juice. They do blend very nicely with orange and lemon in general. My mom used to fix these during the winter when I was growing up, so it's been fun to bring them back to my breakfast table - and find myself enjoying them so much!
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