21 + 4 = 25

While I was sitting at the breakfast table eating my Cornflakes this morning, I noticed some of the fine print on the jar of Vitamin E supplements. They're vegetarian softgels (400 IU) turned out by a New Jersey company called Solgar Vitamin and Herb. And it turns out that Solgar's been in business since 1947! I looked at their website this morning and - sure enough - Solgar (founded by two pharmacists and a holistic physician) introduced Naturvite, a "high potency natural multivitamin with minerals," as their first product in 1947. Naturvite's special selling point seems to have been that it used parsley, watercress, and alfalfa as the "fillers" that bound the vitamins and minerals together instead of the sugars, starches, or salts that brands such as Vimms were using.

American scientists had learned a lot about vitamins and minerals during the war. The military put a ton of cash into researching how to better fuel the bodies of servicemen and heal wounds more quickly. The Office of War Information churned out ad after ad promoting better awareness among the general public of the vitamin and mineral content of various foods. After all, it was critical that men and women working in the defense industry and keeping the home front humming also be in as good health as possible. Americans were highly conscious of vitamins during this period, so it makes sense that the founders of Solgar would find the postwar era an ideal time to launch a multivitamin.

Vitamins may have been a hot topic, but the general public still had a pretty fuzzy understanding of their benefits. This 1940 article from St. Petersburg, Florida's Evening Independent gives you a sense of just how novel all this information was to people outside the medical community:

It is true that people knew very little about vitamins until the present century. So far as they did know anything, the knowledge was in the hands of a few who used certain foods to cure illness. No vitamin had even a name 25 years ago.

Knowledge of vitamins is leading the world toward a new and better day. Babies are being fed foods which make them stronger and healthier. Adults are slowly learning that vitamins can make life better for them as well…

Vitamin A brings better ability to see in dim light. It also appears to be of help in guarding against long-drawn-out colds. It adds to a person’s general feeling of good health, and seems to play a part in guarding teeth against decay.

Vitamin B (also called B1) helps children to grow as they should. It does something to bring about better digestion.

Vitamin C does a great deal to build sound teeth. Along with the A and D vitamins, everyone who has teeth (or hope of teeth) needs it. It also joins with A in building up a feeling of good health.

Vitamin D is a bone-building and tooth-building vitamin. It is needed by the body to make use of calcium and phosphorus, which are minerals in food.

Other vitamins, including E and G, also have their important uses. Scientists are now exploring new vitamins in the B group, and facts about these will be known to a greater extent as the months go by.

Though vitamin "concentrates" and "preparations" were becoming popular, home economists also recognized that a truly balanced diet contained all the vitamins needed for optimum health --- and many cookbooks published during this era contain material on the vitamin content of various foods and how best to prepare foods in order to preserve those vitamins. A columnist for the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote an article on this very topic in 1941, stressing the role the housewife could play:

The people of this country are more conscious of the importance of vitamins and minerals, and other nutritional factors in food, than ever before. The average housewife goes to market with a determination to buy protective foods that will give her family the essentials for better health. But if she is not careful in the preparation of these foods, the loss of their protective values will be tremendous… Natural foods have high contents of vitamins and minerals which incorrect cooking methods can destroy.

Do not cook vegetables in a copper kettle. Use a covered pan, a pressure cooker or a double boiler, and heat them just long enough to make them tender. Many vitamins are water soluble, and also are lost in high heat. Save the water, because in it are vitamins and minerals. Use it for sauces, gravies, soups, or for a cocktail to which lemon juice is added. Use little water when cooking vegetables, just enough to cover them. Green leafy types may be cooked in the water left on the leaves after washing…

Cook potatoes in their skins to preserve the vitamin and mineral contents.

Here on my own home front, I'm doing a pretty good job at taking my multivitamin. It's a three-times-per-day tablet, designed to be taken with a meal. I'm great at remembering it with my breakfast and my dinner. And at lunch on the weekends. But I'm having a terrible time remembering to take it with my lunch on weekdays! Maybe I need to bring a week's supply to work with me on Mondays so it's right there in front of me.

I'm also taking a Vitamin E supplement, a Vitamin D supplement (as the multivitamin only contains 50% of the recommended daily allowance of D), and a sublingual Vitamin B12. My doctor and my mother have been after me for years to take the B12. It's the one vitamin that's absorbed only at the very end of the small intestine. I had to have my large intestine and a portion of my small intestine removed nine years ago, so the sublingual supplement (a little pill you pop under your tongue) is one of the few ways I have of getting that into my body. My levels have always been normal, but it can't hurt to give things a little boost while I'm reducing.

Speaking of which, check out those numbers in the title to this post!!! I practically did a jig this morning when I stepped on the scale and weighed in at 169. The 160s at last! It feels like a milestone... I'm headed out tomorrow to do some shopping and see if I can finally fit into a size 14. Wish me luck!

Crushin'

My kitchen and I are becoming friends. I'd never have thought it possible. But as I hoisted my garbage can out from under the sink last Saturday and scrubbed it clean, it became clear that something's shifted in our relationship. I'm not afraid of my kitchen anymore.

Is it the fact that I'm actually learning how the things in my kitchen work? One Saturday, I was cleaning out one of my drawers and rolled the drawer out just a little too far in the process. The little wheel came off its track and, try as I might, I couldn't get it to roll back in properly. For about one minute, I thought I'd just have to leave it sagging there until the landlord could get to it. Something moved me, though, to pull the drawer all the way out, kneel down and poke my head in there so I could figure out how the other drawers operated. Lo and behold, I figured out exactly what I needed to do, and the drawer rolled back into place perfectly! And I had to do some investigating, but I was able to get my microwave functioning again, too.

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm spending so much darn time in there cooking. No longer is my visit to the kitchen just the booty call it takes to reheat a frozen pizza. I'm right in there washing, chopping, peeling, grating, mixing, kneading... doing the stuff it takes to make this relationship work. (I'm not sure I like where this metaphor is going!) I'm not always successful in the kitchen, but I'll not make the same mistake too many times. And all this one-on-one time has really made me notice things I never noticed before. Like that my kitchen sink has a brand name etched into it. Who knew? It's a Kingsford II.

And let's face it, we women like a kitchen that's a little rough around the edges and needs some taming. I've been putting my Saturday cleanings to good use by reorganizing things to make my storage space more efficient. Breakfast cereals are now stored together instead of being mashed into whichever cupboard would have 'em. Likewise with baking staples, canned goods, and dishes that don't get everyday use. Just last weekend, I cleaned out that mysterious fourth drawer I'd forgotten about and put it to use holding my aluminum foil, plastic wrap, freezer bags, cheesecloth, and extra sponges.

Henry Humphrey, the editor of Woman's Home Companion Household Book (1948), tells us that beauty trumps even efficiency when it comes to the kitchen. It is vital that a room in which the average homemaker spends more than four hours per day sustain her spirit with vibrant colors, contrasts in texture, and cheery novelty motifs. Some of his advice is surprisingly practical advice, however. Here are some of my favorites:

• Good kitchen color schemes are bright. Since there is generally so much white in the kitchen (sink, stove and refrigerator), it is advisable to stay away from white walls unless the room must have them to reflect light.



• There are many styles from which to choose when decorating a kitchen. Early American, French Provincial, Mexican, South American, Swedish, Polish, Pennsylvania Dutch all have been used successfully. You may add to the list indefinitely, but your kitchen will be much nicer if you pick a style before beginning to re-decorate.



• Wallpaper is a charming finish for the breakfast nook. It offers both texture contrast and eye-interest as a relief from the smooth kitchen walls. Wallpaper also relieves the feeling that meals are eaten in the kitchen, and gives the effect of a separate room.



• Never hang curtains on a window over or near a stove.



• Breakfast nook windows should be treated in accordance with the view outside. If... nothing can be seen but ash cans, a blank brick wall or your neighbor's kitchen windows, Venetian blinds with a fluffy valance and short window sill-length draperies will make your breakfasts pleasanter and more private.



• In the interest of safety and cleanliness, carpets and rugs of any kind should never be used in the working area of the kitchen.

Humphrey suggests several color schemes for the kitchen, each of them grounded in either a dark colored linoleum or wood floor. Which scheme is your favorite?

lemon-yellow/turquoise
pale turquoise/cherry
yellow/shrimp
apricot/pale green
chartreuse/sea-green
lavender/deep blue-violet

Week's End

Now here's a breakfast I've got some experience making! I did pick up some interesting trivia from my cookbook today. Scrambled Eggs were once known as Battered Eggs.

Grapefruit Juice
Scrambled Eggs
Toast
Coffee

I've definitely learned a little something during the second week of The Great Housekeeping Experiment. Looking ahead at some of the breakfast menus in my 1945 cookbook, I can see the same cereals used over and over again in different ways. I should note that the menus I've been using are all "winter" menus. There are alternatives suggested for warm weather, usually involving prepared cereals and fresh fruits. If a '40s housewife wanted to be well-equipped for breakfasts on winter mornings, her shopping would have been fairly simple. She'd keep a stock of cereals on hand (rolled oats, cornmeal, wheat, farina), a prepared cereal or two, dried fruits (apricots, prunes), milk, eggs, bread, canned/bottled juices (apple, grapefruit), and some fresh citrus fruit.

And this may sound strange, but I feel like I'm getting better acquainted with my stovetop. Better able to judge where I should set the burner, that getting the water to boil before adding the cereal is always best, that stewing fruits need lots of water. Each cereal has it's own protocol --- as I learned yesterday with Corn-meal Mush. Speaking of which, I may not have been able to find a recipe on my package of cornmeal, but here's a recipe from the Aunt Jemima website with a whole step I missed!

Corn Meal Mush

1 cup Quaker or Aunt Jemima Enriched White or Yellow Corn Meal
1 cup cold water
3 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon salt

In large saucepan, bring 3 cups water and salt to a boil. In small bowl, mix corn meal with cold water. Gradually stir corn meal mixture into salted boiling water. Cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Cover, and continue cooking on low heat 5 minutes for white corn meal or 10 minutes for yellow corn meal, stirring occasionally. Serve hot with milk and sugar. Yield: 6 servings