Appliance-topia

I've just picked up a new filter for my vacuum cleaner and I'm looking forward to beating back the dust in my bedroom this evening. It's startling to realize how much dust collects in that room over the course of a week. (After all, I hadn't cleaned my bedroom in several months when I added it to my housekeeping routine!) Even in only seven days, this fine accumulation of dust settles on every surface. Including the carpet, I'm sure - though it's not visible. I feel a bit like a soldier patrolling the perimeter of my territory when I'm in there with my dustrag and vacuum cleaner. Once a week, I don my uniform (a flowered apron will do nicely, thank you), arm myself with weapons, and head out into the wilds to keep the enemy at bay...

In other household appliance news, I solved a mystery about my iron that's been nagging at me. Every week, about the time I had only one or two pieces left to iron, it would suddenly start to cool and the water inside would started leaking out. I'd turn the heat down, take the plug out of the electric outlet, plug it back in, try to reheat it - nothing. Tried a new outlet and that seemed to work once in restarting the iron. It's not an old iron. The only thing I could think of was that it might be one of those automatic shut-off irons and I was taking too long to finish the work. So it happened again last night and - just when I started cursing - I poked at this button on the handle which is usually lit up. And it worked! The iron heated right back up... I'm still not sure what happened, but I'm happy I've found a way to coax the iron to get back to work again. I guess I'm a slow ironer!

Have any of you ever come across a recipe for Chili Dressing? My vintage dinner menu for this weekend includes a Chili Dressing for the salad and the cookbook doesn't have a recipe for that particular dressing. They do have a Chili Sauce Mayonnaise dressing and both the Russian and Thousand Island dressing recipes contain chili sauce, but nothing specifically called Chili Dressing. I may substitute one of these other recipes, but I thought I'd see if any of my dear readers have any ideas. Here's the full menu:

French Fried Potatoes
Beets
Tossed Greens with Tomato
Chili Dressing
Banana Ice Cream
Molasses Cookies

This is a Friday night menu, so the non-vegetarian dish I'm omitting is a baked fish. If I can find some Banana Ice Cream at the supermarket, I'll make that my store-bought contribution. If I can't find any, I'll skip the Ice Cream and treat myself to some canned Beets. The whole Beets are so hard to clean up after!

Plugging In...

One of the best things I've learned at the ironing board sounds so simple: if you're a rightie (like me) and you plug in the iron to your left, you'll inevitably end up with a miserably kinked-up cord. All it takes to prevent that is just to plug in the iron to your right. And vice versa for lefties. That's it! The cord to my iron is now smooth and straight - and sooooooo much easier to use. What a difference that one little change made.

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...

Top Ten Tips for Ironing

'Tis a sweet, solemn, beautiful day here in the United States of America...



As I listened to President Obama's motorcade making its way to the parade review stands, I fired up the iron and got started on my ironing. After doing some research with my trusty ruler, I decided to position my tabletop ironing board on top of my kitchen table. It's about 35 inches off the floor, so just a smidge higher than recommended by The Good Housekeeping Housekeeping Book (1947). There's an outlet to the right of the table, so I can plug the iron in without having the cord all twisted about. And plenty of light.

Here's a list of Top Ten Tips for Ironing, courtesy of the manual:

1. Remember that the amount of heat in the iron or ironer does not change the instant you turn the switch from one position to another. For this reason, it is best to start with fabrics needing low temperatures and work up to heavy damp linens which need high temperatures. (Check. I usually iron from hot to cold, so this was a whole new way of doing business for me. I also reorganized the stack of clothes in the basket so the items to be ironed first were on top of the pile.)

2. When you straighten material on the ironing board or roll of a rotary ironer, use the palms of your hands and smooth from the center out. Your fingers are apt to stretch the fabrics and pull them out of shape.

3. Iron with straight strokes, with the thread of the fabric. (I didn't do either of these two things. I was concentrating so hard on some of the easier tips that I forgot the others!)

4. Iron each section perfectly dry before you start on the next. (A reminder of just how damp clothes were after having been "sprinkled" and - in some cases - refrigerated overnight.)

5. Collars, cuffs, sleeves, belts and trimmings are ironed first, then the flat sections of the garment. (I forgot to do this. Not as many of my clothes, though, even have these features. There will be plenty of sleeves in the pile on Tuesdays. I'll try to remember this one next week.)

6. White and light-colored cottons and linens are ironed on the right side, dark cottons and linens on the wrong side; silks and rayons on the wrong side; damask on the right side, then on the wrong side. (Before plugging in the iron, I sat down with my basket of clothes and went through them one by one to decide which category they fell in. I ended up turning several items inside out again so I could iron the "wrong side." Thankfully, I didn't have any damask in my basket this week!)

7. If folds in flatwork are always made in the same place, the wear on the fabric from creasing will cause the fibers to break. Sometimes fold in thirds and sometimes in fourths to avoid this strain. (According to the manual, flatwork = "table cloths," sheets, embroidered pieces, and round doilies. Whoops! I just realized that the decorative kitchen towel I ironed was embroidered. I'll have to be mindful of folding this in a different fashion whenever I wash and iron it.)

8. Hang all ironed pieces on a rack where they may dry thoroughly before putting them away. (In the '40s, many items would still be damp from all that re-wetting! Thank goodness for steam. I was able to hang my pieces as soon as they came off the ironing board.)

9. Save labor in folding and improve the appearance of garments by using coat hangers for blouses, dresses and shirts. (Rats. I only own one coat hanger. Plastic hangers will have to be good enough for my blouses, dresses and shirts. For now.)

10. Do not use too hot an iron or shoe. Most hand irons are thermostatically controlled. Ironers are also equipped with thermostatic controls so that you can select the proper heat for the fabric.

Cotton and linen - relatively hot
Wool and silk - moderate heat
Rayon - low heat
Acetate rayon - very low heat
Combinations of fibers - adjust heat to fiber needing lowest temperature. (My iron is marked with similar temperature settings for each of type of fabric - with additional settings for nylon, acrylic, and polyester. I wish I'd remembered that last bit of advice about blends. Next Tuesday.)

My iron did give off a mysterious sweetish smell towards the end of my ironing that I haven't been able to place yet. There is a bit of scorch on the surface that may have come from having the heat set too high once for a synthetic. I'll have to look for some recommendations for cleaning the iron.