Pears: The Other Winter Fruit

Pears, apples, oranges and grapefruit are about the only fresh fruits available to most of us at this time of the year. Oranges and grapefruit are used so much for breakfast that our thoughts need to be directed towards uses of the other two. We know a great deal about using apples in cooking, yet most folks serve pears raw. Pears are milder than apples, but there is no reason why they cannot fill the place of apples anywhere.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette goes on in this February 19, 1945 article to share a recipe for Pear Coffee Cake. I've never given much thought to winter fruits, but those ever-resourceful 1940s housewives would have been keen to find new ways to spice up the breakfast table on frigid winter mornings. There certainly are plenty of fantastic looking pears in the produce section these days, but I'm just as guilty as "most folks" who only "serve pears raw." And yet - Pear Coffee Cake is a little too rich for my blood. Not when I've still got plenty of reducing to do. So I've been rummaging through my vintage cookbooks looking for pear recipes suitable for the reducer's breakfast table. Hmmm... Pear and Cherry Salad, Pear Conde, Pear-grape Salad, Candied Pears, Pickled Pears, Baked Stuffed Pears. The only thing that sounds simple enough for breakfast is a recipe for Stewed Pears. It's a quick recipe, too!

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STEWED PEARS

Peel pears. Cut in half, quarter or slice. Remove core. Add 1 tablespoon granulated sugar for each pear and water to depth of 1/4 inch. Add 2 or 3 cloves, 2 slices lemon. Cover. Bring to boiling. Simmer 10 minutes or until tender. Chill. Serve for breakfast or dessert.

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A November 1949 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also points out that pears can add some variety to winter breakfast menus, but their serving suggestions aren't very imaginative: "Ripe sliced pears are good served with cream... Serve them, too, on prepared cereal." The author does describe some of the varieties of pears that can be found at the market during the winter:

• "The BOSC, the fall russet pear, is distinguished by its symmetrical base and long tapering neck. When ripe, it is a rich, russet color. It is best between September and January."

• "The COMICE is a special favorite during the Christmas holiday season for a gift fruit. It is a de luxe pear, large in size which takes on a creamy yellow color when ripe. It often has a bright red hue. The flesh is fine-grained, sweet and juicy. Best between October and February."

• "The ANJOU is a stubbier, semi-heart shaped pear. It is bordering between a green and creamy yellow when ripe. It has a rich flavor, fine texture and is full of juice, making it a favorite for eating fresh. They are on the market from October until April."

• "The NELIS is a small, russet pear. It has a sweet tender meat. It appears on the market in January and is available until June."

Which variety is your favorite? Do you have any pear recipes that'd be perfect for getting these chilly winter mornings off to a good start? Or an apple breakfast recipe that might be nicely adapted for pears?

Fresh and Local

A pretty productive morning all in all. Completed my basic morning housekeeping routine from top to bottom. The weather has been cool enough here for the past few days that I've been able to leave my bedroom window open 24/7. What a relief to feel that fresh air circulating around my apartment again...

I had to make a last minute change in my breakfast menu as yesterday's meal was a semi-disaster. When I did my marketing last weekend, I was surprised to find that there wasn't a single grapefruit in stock at the supermarket. So I tried something very 1940s - they were fascinated by the idea that anything could be canned --- canned grapefruit sections. Ack! They were awful - rubbery, fibrous, and the flavor was all off. I'd been planning to finish the can for this morning's breakfast, but couldn't bear the thought of this sad excuse for grapefruit a second day in a row. From this day forth, it's fresh grapefruit - or I'll settle for juice.

We're so spoiled in this modern age. I haven't a clue where they ship fresh grapefruit from at this time of the year. I'm just so used to seeing it there every time I shop. One thing I'm just beginning to become more aware of these days is where my produce is coming from. The melons in my market this time of year are being grown right here in the Southwest, so they're super fresh. The berries are from California, but only the raspberries are truly tasty these days. The strawberries and blueberries are past their prime. The oranges are coming all the way from Australia. Still not quite sure about the grapefruit.

My vintage breakfast menus do a nice job of shifting with the seasons. Summer's berries and peaches are giving way to winter's dried prunes and apricots. I do think these menus from the past could be improved by shifting a bit with the produce that's local to your region. Let's face it: fresh, local produce is always tastiest and least expensive. But it does require a kind of flexibility that our modern appetites have gotten a little lazy about. Just like anyone else, I get used to being able to enjoy the same meals, the same treats year-round. So I'm feeling a push here to make some improvements along this line. To get to know better the kinds of produce being grown in this part of the world where I make my home. What's fresh and local during the various seasons and how can I incorporate that in my diet - if only for a few months while it's at its best?

This kind of awareness would probably have come quite naturally to a '40s housewife who made her home outside the city. If she lived in an area where orchards were loaded with apples and pears during the fall, then apples and pears would find their way into many of the meals she served her family that season. There are plenty of ways seasonal fruits can be preserved to be enjoyed during another time of the year, but that invariably requires some additional time and labor. Being able to shift your tastes with the season seems like a skill that's good for the wallet and good for the earth.

My Fruit Dollar

Housecleaning and laundry aren't the only topics covered in exhaustive detail by America's Housekeeping Book (1945). The Manual also includes a chapter on the household budget. Sixty years ago, groceries cost much, much more proportionally than they do today. In fact, the authors of The Manual note than sometimes "the entire budget must be built around this item." The housewife was charged with a vital mission, then, in planning menus that could make the best, most efficient use of every article brought home from the market. Shopping for the best price, food preservation, creative use of leftovers --- these were topics of great importance to housewives and their husbands.

It helps also occasionally to keep a detailed food record for a couple of weeks or a month with separate totals for cost of cereal foods; fruits and vegetables; meats, fish and eggs; milk and cheese; and in a final class, fats, sugar and miscellaneous items. On a modest income, in order to get a balanced diet, not far from 1/5 of the food money should go for each of these five groups.

So I undertook an experiment last winter to shed some light on my own "food dollar." Not only for budget reasons, but because this kind of spending reflects the kind of eating you're doing. For one embarrassing month, I tracked my own grocery expenditures. And it was not a pretty picture. At the end of the month, I realized that I had spent $375.67 for groceries - about $100 to $125 more per month than I thought I'd been spending. 66% of my food dollar had gone toward Fats, Sugar and Miscellaneous Items --- the category where I'd lumped in all the processed, packaged non-single-ingredient foods that hadn't even been thought of in 1940. I spent 11% of my food dollar on Fruits and Vegetables, 10% on Cereal Foods, 8% on Milk and Cheese, and 5% on Eggs, Beans, and Soy.

Fast forward six months. In late July, I started tracking my food dollar again. For one month. I've made lots of changes in my diet and should be able to see a difference in my marketing, right? Well, here are the results... My total spending on groceries for the month was $286.25. That's a significant drop - $89.42 per month I can put to a better use. (Like all these new clothes I have to buy to fit my new figure!)

Fruits and Vegetables: $105.55 (37%)

Fats, Sugar, and Miscellaneous Items: $96.03 (33%)

Breads and Cereals: $33.28 (12%)

Eggs, Beans, and Soy: $25.92 (9%)

Milk and Cheese: $25.47 (9%)

I'm not surprised that my spending on Fruits and Vegetables has risen so dramatically. I absolutely spoil myself these days with as much fresh fruit as I can possibly bring home. If I have it handy, I'm much less likely to do any snacking that ends up on my hips. I am surprised, however, that Fruits and Vegetables took the lead. And that my spending on Fats, Sugar, and Miscellaneous Items has been cut in half!!! Maybe I'll celebrate by sharing the recipe for the Rolled Oat Muffins I tried out last week. Though I was a little skeeved by soaking the oats in sour milk, they turned out incredibly. Moist and nutty and super easy to make. I ate two of them that first morning, then popped the rest in the freezer for rationing out from time to time.

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ROLLED OAT MUFFINS

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup white flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sour milk or buttermilk
2 tablespoons melted shortening

Soak 2 cups rolled oats in sour milk overnight. Sift dry ingredients together. Beat egg; add milk, shortening and sifted ingredients. Mix only enough to dampen flour. Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full and bake in hot oven (400 degrees F.) 25 minutes. Makes 12.

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I wish this lunch packing thing came more naturally to me. I spent a while on Sunday evening prepping Monday's lunch and promptly went to work without the Hard-cooked Egg that was sitting in the fridge. This morning I was feeling antsy about a day-and-a-half-old egg - and realized at the last minute that I'd left all my plastic containers sitting in the dish drainer at work! - so took along one of my leftover frozen lunches instead. I'm determined to grit my teeth, though, and make a success of this second lunch box menu - so I'm going to cook another egg tonight and try it one more time tomorrow. The good news is that the Peanut Butter and Lettuce Sandwich was yummy! I'm looking forward to having that again.

All this talk of food is driving me crazy. I've got a basket full of ironing calling my name. Catch you later!

Fluff Piece

Dear God in heaven, how could they have done this to food?

Bread Stuffing
Baked Acorn Squash
Salad of Grapefruit Sections and Avocado
Prune Whip

I don't like to just point and laugh (or gag) at vintage recipes, but Prune Whip --- I'm not sure how this qualifies as edible. I have issues with foamy, bubbly food to begin with - so I shouldn't even have gone there - but I wanted to know for myself what all the fuss was about. I'm only halfway thru my cookbook's vintage dinner menus, but some sort of fruit whip has already turned up twice for dessert. Come to think of it, folks seemed to be really into frothy, fluffy desserts in those days: chiffon pie, chiffon cake, fruit whip, meringue, apple snow. I wonder why...

It's not the prunes that were a problem for me, mind you. I've enjoyed those at the breakfast table all these months and I probably wouldn't have minded a dish of stewed prunes for dessert with last Sunday's vintage dinner. The first time I came across Apricot Whip as the suggested dessert, I skipped it entirely as I wasn't interested in eating uncooked egg whites. When I took a closer look at the recipe last weekend, I realized that you could bake the Whip and serve it warm. "Why not?" I thought. I've tried to approach this experiment with a sense of adventure.

Here's the picture: Stewed prunes, mashed into a puree. Egg white beaten until stiff, sugar folded in. Blend and bake. Top with nuts.

That's certainly one kind of motivation for passing on dessert. The small taste I had is still seared into my mind. Fortunately, my dinner last weekend wasn't a complete wash. There are about a dozen recipes for stuffing in The American Woman's Cook Book (1945) --- all but one made with bread crumbs, not the bread cubes we typically use for stuffing today. I tried one of the more basic bread-crumb recipes and used it to stuff the centers of my Baked Acorn Squash. Tasty, but I think I'd rather a heartier stuffing made from whole-grain bread. The salad was a classic '40s combination: grapefruit, avocado, romaine lettuce, and a vinaigrette dressing.

I'm looking ahead now to the menu for tomorrow's vintage dinner and prunes are once again on the menu. This time in the salad. Stay tuned!

New Routines

Did you ever notice that as soon as people find out you're regularly walking, they come out of the woodwork to try and make you their walking buddy?

First, a co-worker asks me if she can match me up with a friend of hers who needs a walking buddy. Then another person I know through work tries to get me to commit to a walking relationship. I hope I don't come off as impolite, but I'd really rather walk by myself. Let's face it. Sometimes walking with another person can speed you up --- sometimes it can slow you down. The people I pass when I'm walking are almost always in pairs. And the last thing I want to do is to have to rush to the park to sit around and wait for somebody who might be late showing up - and then might show up toting a kid or two. Complete with strollers. I've got business to take care of!

I gathered up all my courage Monday evening and went into the rec center to purchase a membership and take my first indoor walk on the walking track. The rec center may be located just a few steps away from the park where I've been walking on the weekends --- but it's a whole new world in there! It's louder for starts. The walking track is built around a basketball court with racquetball courts nearby. There's lots of testosterone in the air as most of the people using the basketball court are young men in the 15-25 age range. I've only been there twice, but I'd say there's a more competitive feeling indoors than there is with the folks using the outdoor track. (It's actually the first time I've wanted to check my rear view in the mirror to see whether those new exercise pants are flattering or not!) The track is pretty small, so I can easily do 30 laps in a 60-minute walk. Thank goodness for that iPod. I'd perish without it! I'll still have a chance to walk outdoors one day a week. The rec center is closed on Sundays.

As for snacks, I'm doing remarkably better at the only-fruits-or-vegetables thing than I thought I would. Of course, it helps that nectarines are in season here. I picked up some beautiful, small nectarines last weekend at one of the natural foods stores. They've got a great selection of produce and I was in quest of some parsnips for my vintage dinner - but the nectarines caught my eye. Have you seen how big the fruits are in some of the supermarkets these days? They must be breeding super-sized fruits for super-sized customers. And bigger isn't always better. I'm a nectarine nut, so imagine my excitement when I saw these massive nectarines at the supermarket last summer. Ack! They were mealy and bland and never got to that lovely soft stage where the fruit just melts in your mouth. Anyway, I've been having one nectarine every day at about 3:00 in the afternoon. That's it for snacks. This weekend will probably be more challenging than my weekdays have been, but I'm feeling ready to face the enemy.

Here's the menu for my vintage dinner last Sunday:

Parsley Buttered Potatoes
Pan-fried Parsnips
Molded Salad of Cranberry Sauce (canned), Celery and Apples
Butterscotch Pudding with Nuts

I haven't had Parsnips in years. In fact, I remember being slightly traumatized the last time I ate them. It's been a long time, though, so I figured I ought to give them another shot. They have a spicy, celery-type scent as you're working with them, but once cooked they were pretty bland. Didn't taste like much of anything. What I've heard since then is that Parsnips are tastiest in the fall when they're fresh from the soil. Alas, my first attempt at a non-gelatin Molded Salad was a dismal failure. I tried just heating up a can of the jellied cranberry sauce, adding the celery and apples, and putting the concoction in the fridge to chill - but it never quite set. I'm going to track down some of the agar a couple of my readers mentioned and try that next time.

It's Thursday evening, which means that it's time to clean my bedroom. The first order of business will be the daily chores recommended by America's Housekeeping Book (1945). This will be my new weekly routine for the bedroom:

Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.

Remove all bed covers; stretch over end of bed, or over chairs, off the floor. Remove soiled bed linen; place near door to be taken out. Place mattress pad over chair near window to air.

Bring in cleaning equipment: carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner (according to need), dust mop, dust cloth, damp cloth. Bring in fresh bed linens.

Turn mattress top to bottom one week, and end to end the next week. Make bed.

Dust high objects if necessary (mantels, high shelves, window frames and sills, tops of bookcases, etc.).

Dust radiators covers if necessary.

Brush upholstery if necessary. Straighten covers. Plump up pillows.

Dust furniture and low objects if necessary.

Dust exposed wood flooring with dust mop if necessary. Use carpet sweeper or vacuum cleaner on rugs or carpets.

Polish or wash accessories and return to place with other objects removed during cleaning.

Final touches: Straighten draperies, shades, curtains, etc. Take out cleaning equipment and waste basket. Bring back clean ash trays, accessories, flowers and waste basket. Close windows if desired.

I'm kicking off my new monthly chores (recommended in 1945 as weekly chores) by making my bedroom the featured room this week. So here are the extra chores I'll also be doing in there tonight. Brushing walls is a whole new thing for me this week. More on that in another post...

Collect lamp bases, bric-a-brac and dressing table fittings that need polishing or washing, and dresser scarves to be laundered.

Brush walls when necessary. Dust high mouldings, door frames, window shades and Venetian blinds when necessary. Brush draperies (or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner). Dust mirrors, pictures, lighting fixtures, lamps, woodwork; wash any of these articles if necessary.

Dust radiators (covers and coils) or registers; clean thoroughly when necessary. Brush baseboard or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner. Dust book shelves and books as necessary. Wash windows when necessary.

Remove cushions from upholstered furniture. Use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner on furniture (getting into all crevices) and cushions. Replace cushions.

Rub wood surfaces of furniture to polish; apply wax or polish when necessary. Polish metal hardware if necessary. Wash glass table tops.

Use vacuum cleaner for cleaning of rugs and carpets.

The evening is short and I've got a bed to strip. Time to shed my dress and get to work!

Skin Care

Soap and water may have been okay for the teenage crowd, but 1940s beauty experts did have a few tricks up their sleeves for women looking for a little more in cleansing the face.

If you use a granular wash, such as beauty grains, you will find the skin tone clarified, and the texture improved. (The New American Etiquette, 1941)

An effective routine for the care of the war worker’s skin is frequent, thorough cleansing with warm water and a medicated soap. ("No Ration on Soap," St. Petersburg Times, 27 August 1943)

After cold water is used, an astringent should be applied with cotton, allowed to dry on. Cosmetic counters are full of them. ("To Improve Defects in Facial Skin," St. Petersburg Times, 28 February 1941)

I don't know yet if I'll take them up on any of this advice, but it's nice to know there are plenty of vintage options... The soap and water thing is probably not going to work in the long term for me - at least not just soap and water. I love the clean, but it leaves my face feeling a bit stingy even a couple hours later.

Could it be that I'm getting used to cooking dinner from scratch? For the first time since I started making the vintage dinners, I actually sat down at the table last night without feeling completely exhausted. Here's the menu:

Boiled Potatoes
Buttered Carrots
French Fruit Salad
Gingerbread Square

The Boiled Potatoes and Buttered Carrots are pretty self-explanatory. The Gingerbread was a wartime recipe - made without any sugar or eggs. It was easy to make and yummy fresh from the oven. (No nudges necessary to eat those leftovers!) The superstar of this menu was definitely the French Fruit Salad. The original menu calls for a Jellied Fruit Salad made with the leftover orange, pineapple, and banana from the previous menu (see last weekend). I don't eat gelatin as it's an animal by-product, so I paged through the chapter on salads looking for something I could make using the same fruits. Here's the recipe that caught my attention:

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FRENCH FRUIT SALAD

1 orange
1 banana
1/2 pound Malaga grapes
1 dozen walnuts
Lettuce
French dressing

Peel the orange and cut the sections from the membrane with a sharp knife or a pair of shears. If the fruit is allowed to stand in cold water after peeling, the bitter white membrance will come off easily.

Peel the banana and cut in quarter-inch slices. Remove the skins and seeds from the grapes. Break walnuts into small pieces, but do not chop. Mix these ingredients thoroughly and place on ice. Serve on lettuce leaves with a French dressing.

*****

The trick is making the French dressing variation that's suggested for fruit salads. No garlic, no pepper, light on the mustard, paprika, and sugar, citrus juice substituted for half the vinegar. The orange, banana, grapes, and walnuts were a lovely combination. Alas, I couldn't find any Malaga grapes at the supermarket. (Malaga grapes are both red and white grapes originally cultivated in a region of southern Spain. By the '40s, they were a profitable California crop.) My grapes were Chilean. And, no, I didn't peel 'em. What's with the '40s phobia about fruit skins? They're peeling their tomatoes, peeling their grapes. It's perfectly good fiber! And I love the snap of a super fresh grape - skin intact.

Catchup

I can't believe it's been three days since my latest vintage dinner and I haven't posted the results! Yesterday was kind of a tough day. I was running late in the morning and ended up having to dish my oatmeal and pineapple into a mug and eat it when I got to work. (Not the most relaxing breakfast I've ever had!) I'd forgotten about some lunch plans and needed to get my five walks for the week in - so I went to the park after work. Which made me late getting home and feeling very unmotivated to do anything else. Yep, the routine took a hit yesterday, but I was back in the game when my alarm clock went off this morning. With a new resolution: No internet allowed in the a.m. on a weekday. I love getting online to find out what's going on in the world, but it's definitely a liability when it comes to time.

Here's the 1945 dinner menu I whipped up last Sunday evening:

Browned Potatoes

Asparagus Salad

Enriched Bread

Fresh Fruit Cup, Three

The Browned Potatoes are also called American Fried Potatoes in the cookbook. Potatoes parboiled, then cut in slices and fried on the stovetop in a "very little fat." I boiled mine for too long to start, so they were a little softer than I'd have liked - but still good. The Asparagus for the Salad was boiled, then chilled 'til cold. (Canned asparagus was suggested as an alternative.) The recipe instructed me to cut rings from a green pepper, place four stalks of asparagus through each ring, and serve on a bed of lettuce. The basic French Dressing recipe was dressed up this week with a squirt of Catchup, but it didn't make much of a difference in the taste. You know, I think if there's one thing I step away from when it comes to these menus, it'll be the dressing. I cut the recipe in eighths and still end up having to throw much of it away. I may go ahead and buy a bottled viniagrette that I can get some real use from.

Fresh Fruit Cup, Three was a real puzzle... I finally realized that the cookbook contains three recipes for Fresh Fruit Cup. The author must have been calling for the third version this evening. It was a tropical fruit salad - diced orange, diced pineapple, and sliced banana served in layers in a tall glass with coconut. The one step I'd do without next time? Pouring fruit juice over the whole affair before serving. I used orange juice thinking it'd go nicely with the fruit, but it just made the whole thing soggy.

My vintage dinners on Sunday evening have become a lovely kind of ritual. I still make lots of mistakes, but I guess that's the only way you can learn how to cook. The one thing I'm really proud of is that I've been making myself eat at least one serving of leftovers. (Those of you who have been following along know that I have some issues with leftovers!) I've found that if I nudge myself hard - and eat 'em before they're three days old - I can shelve those phobias about food spoilage.

Unlike my housework last night, my vintage beauty missions were not sacrificed to my mood. And the walks might be paying off. I could be imagining things, but I think I actually felt a little spring in my step today. Fancy that! It's as if my muscles are slowly waking up - fiber by fiber - and remembering what they're there for. I had this strange sensation just in walking around the office at work today. This feeling that I could go a little faster and a little farther. It's been just two weeks since I started exercising. That's only ten walks. If it feels like this at two weeks, can you imagine what it'll feel like at four weeks - and eight weeks?

Wednesdays

Wednesday might just be a good mid-week catch-up day after all... My strategy with these weekly chores has been that when social plans fall on an evening I've dedicated to a particular chore, I'd push every chore forward one day and catch up on the weekend. What I'm finding is that Wednesday is a nice opportunity to keep social plans during the early part of the week from disrupting the entire week's schedule. My only weekly chore on Wednesday evenings is "light" marketing - a brief stop on the way home from work at one of the smaller groceries where I buy organic foods - so I certainly have some additional free time later in the evening.

Case in point: this week. Several days ago, I lost my wallet and the Good Samaritan who picked it up decided not to return it or dispose of it, but rather to start using my debit card. (Thanks, creep.) Fortunately, I noticed it was missing very quickly and stopped the bleeding. Well, now I'm a woman without an identity. I've had to replace everything from my bank accounts and driver's license to my insurance cards and library card. I'm far from finished, but that's the reason I've been a bit upside down this week. I've missed breakfast the last two days because I was busy making phone calls. Last night, my sister needed some last-minute help with the babies, so the ironing got left behind. It's been a bit frantic, but it's nice to know that I still have plenty of time to do the ironing tonight and everything will be back on schedule again...

Wednesdays were a hodgepodge kinda day according to America's Housekeeping Book (1945), too. A day for "specific jobs such as silver polishing, shopping, sewing or something to be carried on throughout the day." I guess that's a 1940s update on the traditional saying: "mend on Wednesday."

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy my new centerpiece? Since studying up on vintage table settings for the kitchen, I realized the centerpiece you most frequently see in advertisements and in photos is a bowl of fruit. Practical, colorful, and pretty (as long as your bananas aren't overripe). Since I started making these vintage breakfasts, I've been keeping more fresh fruit about the house than ever before - grapefruit, oranges, lemons, bananas, apples - so I resurrected a small blue footed cake-plate that'd been gathering dust at the back of a cupboard and made it a fruit plate. It's perfect! Just the size for my kitchen table, and it looks a little different every day of the week. Living art.



Another of my breakfast-table discoveries has been if you dress up a bowl of corn-meal mush with a dab of margarine and a pinch or two of brown sugar, it takes like caramel corn. Yum!

What I've also discovered is that my "cooking" habits over the last several years have left me with a serious case of leftover-phobia. I can make something perfectly good to eat, like the shepherd's pie on Sunday evening, and end up with five servings left over. One day later, I'm craving something different for dinner. Okay, everybody needs a change of pace... Two days later, I start making something else and remember the pie when it's too late... Three days later, I'm starting to get icked out at the thought of eating it. It's probably starting to spoil by now, right? Here's some more perfectly good food gone to waste because I've gotten out of the habit of eating leftovers. This is something I have got to correct.

Potatoes, Parsley, and Pears

What a night!

Potatoes Persillade (started out as Parsley Buttered Potatoes)

Canned Green Beans

Pear and Grape Salad

Corn-meal Muffins

Dinner made it to the table only about five minutes late this evening, but only because I realized after the last time that I grossly underestimate the time it takes to prep and cook things. I tried to wash things up as I went along - which works out great until the last ten minutes or so - and even had a chance to set the table this time. When I sat down earlier this afternoon to plan my preparations, I felt a bit like a military tactician plotting out the action minute-by-minute.

D-60: Wash and peel potatoes.

D-50: Start heating pot of potatoes in cold water.

D-25: Prepare corn-meal muffin batter.

D-20: Muffins in oven.

D-15: Begin preparing salad.

D-10: Start heating green beans.

D-5: Add potatoes to saucepan with melted margarine. Roll to coat with lemon juice and parsley.

Surprisingly enough, I pulled it off, and it all came together at just about the right time. Things still get pretty hairy right there at the end, though. I guess someday I'll be a wise, old housewife and a home-cooked dinner will be a piece of cake!

The Parsley Buttered Potatoes should be made with smallish potatoes. Well, small enough potatoes so that you can boil them in 40 minutes without having to cut them in pieces. The whole potatoes are easier to roll about in a saucepan to coat with garnishes. There was actually a non-budget conscious version of this recipe inside my cookbook called Potatoes Persillade. The only difference: fresh lemon juice. I happened to have a lemon in the house, so added a twist or two.

How can you go wrong with Canned Green Beans? I don't have a Corn Sticks pan, so I decided to make half a batch of Corn-meal Muffins instead. I tried to avert Next Day "Too Dry to Eat" Syndrome by freezing the leftovers right away, but check out these tips I found in a November 1945 issue of Better Homes and Gardens for just that problem. (I guess it's always been an issue for housewives!)

Second-Day Treats

Corn bread leftovers make elegant stuffing seasoned with celery and onion... Or take your choice of sage or thyme.

To serve leftover corn sticks, slice sticks in half, toast under the broiler.

Split corn bread squares, cut diagonally to make triangles, toast, and use under creamed foods.

I've saved the best for last: Pear and Grape Salad. My mouth dropped when I read the recipe for this dish the other night and I've been trying to imagine how I'd pull it off ever since:

*****

PEAR-GRAPE SALAD

Frost the curved surface of one-half pear with cream cheese, stud with one-half grapes and garnish with chicory and watercress, or other attractive greens.

*****

"How on earth would cream cheese stick to a pear?" I wondered. Well, it stuck. And the pear didn't have to be frosted all that prettily as the grape halves cover the surface anyway. I chose red seedless grapes and an Anjou pear. Couldn't find any chicory or watercress at the supermarket, so opted for a spring mix of baby greens and herbs instead. This made an absolutely darling salad! It looked like a giant raspberry resting on a bed of greens. And it was very easy to make - especially once I figured out that my melon baller came in handy for cleaning the core out of the pear. If I were to make this again, I'd definitely choose an overripe pear, so it's easy to cut through when you're trying to eat it, and 1/4 of a pear is actually enough for each person. If you were serving this to a family, you could lay the pear halves on a plate at the center of the table, then cut each one in half again before serving it to each person.

The taste was interesting. Sweet, creamy, and bitter --- but it dressed up the table so nicely. So decorative for a weekday family dinner! It made me think how the daily dinner truly was the '40s housewife's final "presentation" for the day. Her husband and children were gathered around the table for the first time since breakfast. This was her chance to show the family all the good she'd been able to do that day. An opportunity to show off her freshly laundered and ironed linens, her sparkling dishes, and food prepared even when the pantry contents were slim and she'd met shortages at the grocery. To share pickles, preserves, and canned goods prepared last summer.