The Evening After

Well, I wouldn't call it the social event of the decade, but my parents cleaned their plates - my dad even asked for seconds - and we had some good laughs afterward as I showed them the cookbook I'd used and shared some of the recipes I spared them! Though I'd planned on serving a 1940s Easter menu, I decided at the last minute to serve up a medley of some of the surprisingly wonderful vintage recipes I've discovered in cooking dinner for myself over the past year. I guess you could say it was kind of like my annual report on vintage cookery.

Lima-Bean Casserole
Mashed Potato Balls
Beet Pickle Salad
Popovers
Honey Rice

Mashed Potato Balls are patties formed from cold mashed potatoes and a beaten egg yolk. Brown them in the oven with a dab of margarine on top. I added some seasoned salt to mine to give them a little kick. The Beet Pickle I used for the salad was a canned version purchased at the supermarket. (Aunt Nellie's is the brand. I like to think of her as my dear old Aunt Nellie who pickled the beets straight out of her Victory Garden last summer.) I sliced the beets and served them on a bed of lettuce with a tiny dollop of mayonnaise. Popovers are an old family favorite and the recipe in The American Woman's Home Cook Book (1945) doesn't disappoint. (Note: If you're using a modern popover pan, the batter only makes about six.)

***************************************************

POPOVERS

1 cup sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted shortening

Sift flour and salt together. Beat eggs and add milk, shortening and sifted dry ingredients. Beat until smooth with rotary beater. Fill greased muffin pans 1/2 full and bake in very hot oven (450 degrees F.) 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to moderate (350 degrees F.) and bake 15 minutes longer. Makes 8.

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Whew! It's been a long time since I had such a heavy meal so late in the day. My eating habits have changed so much over the last twelve months that it felt positively strange to wake up still feeling so not-hungry this morning. I guess I've gotten used to waking up with an empty tummy! I felt so full I couldn't face anything more than Toast for breakfast this morning. My sink is full, too. Full of dirty pans that needed a good soaking. My mission tonight is to finish cleaning up after the party.

Lessons learned? 1) I truly would have appreciated one of those vintage ranges with three or four different oven chambers. You can set each chamber at a different temperature, right? None of last night's recipes wanted to play together when it came to temperature. 2) My apartment is way too small to entertain more than one person at a time. And it's awful tough to serve dinner at the kitchen table when you have to ask one of your guest to stand up for a minute while you open the oven to check on your Honey Rice. (I'm thinking Dorothy Dix would not have approved.) Let's face it. Nobody should be seated right in front of the oven! Talk about a hot seat.

Baby Steps

Well, this last week has been a mixed bag.

It's been successful in some ways --- I was able to get all my weekday walks in and made it through five laps at the park yesterday. Today's goal: six! I filed my federal tax return on Thursday and mailed off my state return yesterday, so $638 should be winging its way to me within the next few weeks.

It's been unsuccessful in others --- I'm really struggling to find the motivation to do anything at home. I'm not having any trouble shopping, however, so I have been enjoying buying some new spring clothes to fit my new body and some new bedding to fit my new mattress. I find myself resisting the thought of having to start from scratch, but I guess there's no other way out of this hole. So I'm making a pledge right now - whatever else I do or don't do this week - to put the routine back in my morning. Remember these? These nine simple steps I adopted one at a time beginning in November 2007. They became the core of my housekeeping routine:

Open window in bedroom on arising, for free circulation of air.

Throw back bed covers, including top sheet.

Carry soiled clothing to the hamper. Hang up other clothing. Put away any personal possessions out of place in the bedroom.

Prepare and serve breakfast.

Clear away dishes and misplaced articles from dining room, after breakfast.

Operate ventilating range hood while scraping, rinsing, and stacking dishes in the dishwasher. Leave pots and pans to soak in sink.

Put away food.

Make bed.

Close bedroom window if air conditioning will be used during day.

There's no excuse in the world that feels as good to me now as I used to feel having accomplished these nine simple steps every morning of the week. Whether I'd like the extra sleep or not, my body is used to getting up at a certain time and getting things done, so I can't even truly enjoy re-setting my alarm and spending another hour in bed! I just lie there, tossing and turning, feeling stupendously unaccomplished for not getting up and doing my chores. I'm resolving, in fact, to do every one of these chores before I press "Publish Post" on these very words this morning. By the time you read this post, I'll have finished each and every one of them...

There, I've finished the first three steps. Now for a little fun. I've asked my parents over for a vintage dinner party on April 11 before they head back East for the year. It's the Sunday after Easter, but I'm planning a 1940s springtime menu complete with vintage table decorations. I've been doing a little research into Easter menus from that time period. Leaving out the meat, of course, I'm sure to be able to mix and match from these dishes to come up with a menu appropriate for my dinner party. Which one is your favorite?

Milwaukee Journal (April 18, 1943)
Broiled Ham Slice
Parsley Buttered Potatoes
Steamed Peas in Orange Cups
Fresh Fruit Salad
Baking Powder Biscuits with Honey
Cake [made with coconut and candy eggs] and Fresh Pineapple
Coffee

Better Homes and Gardens (April 1945)
Baked Ham Slice
Easter Eggs
New Potatoes and Peas in Cream
Little Green Onions
Carrot Curls
Rosy Radishes
One-a-Penny Buns
Mile-High Lemon Chiffon Pie

St. Petersburg Times (March 18, 1945)
Cream of Fresh Vegetable Soup
Celery Crisps
Chicken Loaf
Frizzled Ham Slices
Glazed Sweet Potatoes
String Beans Hollandaise
Fruit Fan Salad [segments of chilled citrus fruit, strawberries, apple slices, and raisins for garnish]
Toasted Crackers
Cheese Spread

Toledo Blade (April 16, 1946)
Orange and Grapefruit Cup
Fried Chicken
New Potatoes with Watercress
Butter
Fresh Asparagus
Endive and Hard Cooked Egg
Salad
Corn Meal Muffins
Rhubarb Cream Pie

Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 1947)
Three Fruit Cocktail [frosted peaches, grapefruit, strawberries]
The Easter Ham [garnish of peach halves]
Sweet Potato Puffs
New Asparagus
Mock Hollandaise Sauce
Molded Spring Salad
Hot Biscuit or Rolls
Preserves or Jelly
Meringue Shells with Ice Cream and Strawberries
Coffee
Candy
Sliced Nuts

Tomato Consomme
Crisp Wafers
Olives
Radish Rose
Celery
Roast Chicken with Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with Celery
Mixed Fresh Fruit Salad
Frozen Strawberry Dessert
Coconut Frosted Cup Cakes
Coffee
Candies

Fresh Fruit Cup
Crown Roast of Lamb with Mint Apples
New Potatoes in Cream
Buttered New Potatoes or Cauliflower
Spring Vegetable Salad
Daffodil Cake a la Mode
Coffee
Salted Nuts
Candies

[Spokane] Spokesman-Review (March 18, 1948)
Fruit Cup
Baked Ham
Creamed New Potatoes and Peas
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Jellied Gingerale and Pear Salad
Relishes
Hot Cross Buns
Orange Chiffon Cake
Coffee

Southeast Missourian (April 14, 1949)
Consomme with Cut-up Vegetables
Roast Leg of Spring Lamb
Mint Sauce
Brown Gravy
Surprise Baked Potatoes
Green Peas
Buttered Asparagus
Parkerhouse Rolls
Butter or Fortified Margarine
Watercress Salad
Angel Pie with Crushed Strawberries and Pineapple
Coffee
Milk

You can definitely see some trends as to what kinds of foods were considered springlike in the 1940s, even if there was no way on God's green earth most Americans could put fresh peas, asparagus, strawberries, or pineapple on the dinner table in April! Unless you lived out West, you probably wouldn't be able to pull that kind of thing off 'til June. Most housewives would have had to rely on canned (or frozen) fruits or vegetables for an Easter menu like these. Maybe that's what these Easter dinner menus are really all about --- a taste of what's to come in a couple more months. A hint of your first harvest from the garden, even if it's weeks away and those seedlings aren't even yet in the ground!

Back to work. Let's face it, my kitchen's a mess. And the last thing I feel like doing is any kind of baking or cooking in a mess. I've been stalled up on this last week's breakfast menus ever since Tuesday's called for some baking. I need to address that, but I can't do it before eating my breakfast this morning - so I'm going to shoot for something simple, but filling. How 'bout Thursday's menu:

Grapefruit Half
Poached Free-range Eggs
Toast

I've just finished steps four, five, six, and seven. It's literally the first time in weeks I've eaten a meal sitting at my kitchen table. I've still got two more steps to take, then I can publish this post and go forward with my day...

Check, and check! I'll have to share some of the decorating I've started in my bedroom in another post. For now, my bed is made. The room has been aired, but it's warm enough these days that I should be able to open the window again in a couple hours and leave it open 'til sunset. Thanks for holding my hand while I worked my way thru these chores. Clearly - even after all this time - keeping things clean and organized does not come naturally to me. Will it ever?

Appetizing!

One of the things I've discovered after long years in Singledom is that people take it for granted that you're unable to cook or bake --- and on occasions such as Thanksgiving you are rarely asked to bring anything more than appetizers or something you can purchase.

To be honest, there have been years when this was a relief to me. Throughout my twenties - when we usually celebrated Thanksgiving with my older sister's in-laws - I was always in charge of pickles and olives. (Mind you, they had to be just the right kind of pickles and olives. For our family, no Thanksgiving table would be truly complete without a dish of sweet gherkins and pimento-stuffed green olives.) Since moving to the Southwest two years ago, I celebrate Thanksgivings with my younger sister's in-laws. And now I'm in charge of appetizers. Guess I'm moving up in the world!

This particular crowd doesn't eat all that much before dinner, so I'll keep it simple today. I'm planning one hot appetizer (artichoke parmesan spread with assorted crackers) and one cold appetizer (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and celery with hummus). On second thought, maybe they do eat a lot. Check out some of these much simpler appetizers from vintage Thanksgiving menus... Next year, I'm totally just bringing a can of fruit cocktail. (Just kidding!)

from the menu at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana (1940)
Fruit Cocktail

from an "all-Washington" menu, Mt. Adams Sun (1940)
Oyster Cocktail

from the St. Petersburg Times (November 23, 1940)
Shrimp Cocktail
Cheese
Paprika Pastry Stars

from the Army Thanksgiving menu (1941)
Shrimp Cocktail
Celery
Olives

from The New American Etiquette (1941)
Fruit Cocktail
Celery
Olives

from an "all-Florida" menu, Evening Independent (1942)
Oyster or Shrimp Cocktail with Toasted Wafers

from four menus in the St. Petersburg Times (November 16, 1942)
Cranberry Ice or Fruit Frappe

Chilled Sweet Cider

Shrimp Cocktail

Cider Cocktails

from the WAACs Thanksgiving menu (1942)
Fruit Cocktail
Celery
Olives
Pickles

from the Army Thanksgiving menu (1943)
Fruit Cup

from the OPA-suggested Thanksgiving menu (1944)
Fruit Cocktail

from the U.S. armed forces "master" Thanksgiving menu (1944)
Grapefruit Juice

from two menus in The American Woman's Cook Book (1945)
Grapefruit Baskets
Olives

Grapefruit

from the menu at the Naval Air Station, Arlington, Virginia (1945)
Fruit Cocktail

from the White House Thanksgiving menu (1946)
Celery and Olives

from the Army Thanksgiving menu (1946)
Stuffed Celery
Pickles
Olives

from The Evening Independent (November 26, 1947)
Fruit Cup

I'll be giving an extra word of thanks this Thanksgiving Day for the news I received from my surgeon's office yesterday afternoon: "cancer free."

A blessed and happy Thanksgiving Day to you all...

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.

Lunch Hour

I've been doing a pretty good job with these vintage lunch menus lately... I can only say "pretty good," because even this week I broke down and took one of my pre-mission frozen lunches to work on Wednesday. (I'd eaten the same lunch for the last two days in a row and couldn't face it one more time!) I've finally reached the bottom of that carton of soup, so I'm planning a new menu for tomorrow. First, though, let's take a closer look at the last one. How much of an improvement was this vintage menu over a typical pre-mission lunch? Here's the 1945 menu, with a few adaptations in the interest of my waistline:

Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Open-faced Cheese Sandwich on Whole-grain Bread with Mustard and Lettuce
Celery
Olives
Fresh Pear

Now let's compare it to one of my normal pre-mission lunches - a frozen Enchilada Pie by Cedarlane.

Typical pre-mission lunch
Calories: 430
Fat: 14g
Sodium: 1,190mg
Carbohydrates: 52g
Protein: 26g

Vintage lunch, adapted
Calories: 350
Fat: 16g
Sodium: 1,530mg
Carbohydrates: 37g
Protein: 16g

Kind of a mixed bag this time. I certainly take a sodium hit whenever soup is on the menu. All in all, though, I'd say these vintage menus are doing well by me. Here's the original menu for tomorrow, straight from The American Woman's Cook Book (1945):

Oven Baked Beans
Catchup
Boston Brown Bread Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Filling
Cole Slaw
Applesauce
Milk

...with a few edits:

Vegetarian Baked Beans
Catchup
Open-faced Raisin Brown Bread Sandwich with Light Cream Cheese
Pennsylvania Cabbage Salad
Applesauce

Lunchtime at work is still a bit rushed. I zoom out the door at noon - as soon as I've slathered on some sunblock and thrown a cap on. I've been wearing heels most of the time these days, so I bought a cute little pair of slide-on canvas shoes with a good sole that make that noon walk so much more comfortable! My iPod in my pocket and away I go... You know, I remember vividly when this routine was new and it seemed like a massive rush to walk for 30 minutes and try to cram down a meal. These days, it doesn't really seem so bad. I'm usually back in the office by 12:35. My lunch takes less time to prepare - maybe two minutes in the microwave for my soup (versus five minutes for one of the frozen meals). That gives me a good 15 minutes to eat, a quick trip to the ladies' room to powder my nose and reapply lipstick, then I'm back to work. Admittedly, I don't always have time for fruit after eating my lunch, so I'm sure to fit it in as a mid-afternoon snack when that happens.

Once a week, I treat myself to a chance to wear a dress with those heels. I have one weekday off from my mid-day walk. One chance to dress up and wear the kind of clothes that I can't really do any power walking in. What surprises me is that I find myself a little antsy on my days off. That uninterrupted hour seems to go on forever! What a turn-around.

The Housewife's Tool Box: Thinking Ahead

Let's hear it for persistence... I nailed that vintage lunchbox menu today. (It's about time!) And just because I want to make sure these vintage menus are really and truly better for me, I'm going to compare the basic nutritional stats to one of my typical pre-mission lunches. I used to love having one of those table-ready cans of Campbell's Creamy Tomato Parmesan Bisque with probably two or three servings' worth of Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits and Trader Joe's Chunky Olive Hummus. Yummalicious! And yet:

Typical pre-mission lunch
Calories: 640
Fat: 36.5g
Sodium: 1,480mg *gasp*
Carbohydrates: 82g
Protein: 16g

Vintage lunch, adapted
Calories: 360
Fat: 23.5g
Sodium: 370mg
Carbohydrates: 27g
Protein: 17g

Yikes. My vintage lunch menu today was a no-holds-barred improvement on a typical pre-mission lunch. So far, these 1945 lunches - with a little tweaking - are undeniably a change for the better. Here's the adapted menu for tomorrow:

Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Open-faced Cheese Sandwich with Mustard and Lettuce on Whole-grain Bread
Celery
Olives
Fresh Pear

All this fuss over lunches here at the Jitterbug household has made me think about just how important forethought was to the 1940s housewife. You might have the latest washing machine, a state-of-the-art vacuum, and an amazing storage closet, but you couldn't run an efficient home without the ability to think ahead. To anticipate the needs of tomorrow and the day after that. To plan, to remember, to always have a foot in the next meal while cleaning up after the last one. The kitchen - the basic, never-ending demands of the battle to put nutritious, affordable meals on the table three times a day --- the kitchen probably requires more forethought than any other facet of housekeeping. And when it came to rationing - a family couldn't have survived without the forethought an experienced mother and wife had ready to apply to the challenge.

My own vintage meals are several days in the making. Before doing my twice-weekly marketing, I sit down to plan my menus for the week ahead. Buying produce especially can be a trick. If I buy it too far in advance, it'll spoil before it hits the table. Produce that keeps or that needs time to ripen can be purchased a little farther in advance. How many eggs have I got on hand? How many days 'til my milk expires? Can I get a better deal on spices at the supermarket or at the natural foods store? All these questions must be weighed as I make my way through the store. I'll bet most successful housewives constantly carry about in their heads a running inventory of their pantry!

In the evenings, I must look ahead to the morning. Have I got enough space in the dishwasher for tomorrow's breakfast dishes? Is there anything which needs to be taken out of the freezer to thaw? Anything to soak overnight? My latest question: What can I prepare in advance for tomorrow's lunch? If a vintage dinner is in the works: Are there any dishes I can make up before I've finished cleaning up after lunch?

I don't think this kind of forethought has to come naturally... If it did, I'd be in serious trouble. It's a learned skill, I think. Something you just become better at with lots and lots of practice. I haven't picked it up completely myself. There are plenty of moments where I wish I'd thought of something hours ago - or days ago. But those kinds of moments come fewer and farther between these days. See? There is hope for all you last-minute types like me!

New Week, New Strategy

Just stopping in quickly with a brief post about lunchmaking...

I ran into some trouble with this mission last Friday morning. I baked a batch of Rolled Oat Muffins to include with my breakfast --- and I guess that was all the work in the kitchen I could handle in one morning. With five minutes to go, I realized I hadn't even started cooking the egg that was on my lunch menu. So threw up a white flag and grabbed one of my leftover pre-mission lunches.

New week, new strategy. I'm going to try packing as much of my lunch as possible the night before. It'll be part of my evening chores in the kitchen. Usually I just empty the sink of any pots or pans that have been soaking and make sure there's room in the dishwasher for the next morning's breakfast dishes. Now I'll add making my lunch for work the next day to that list. Of course, there will always been an item or two that needs to be assembled in the morning, but I ought to be able to get the bulk of the work out of the way the night before. That's the plan anyway! Here's the original 1945 lunch menu in the works for tomorrow:

Peanut Butter, Bacon and Lettuce Sandwiches
Cauliflowerets
Carrot Sticks
Hard-Cooked Egg
Gingerbread
Grapes
Milk

And here's the menu adapted for vegetarians and/or reducers:

Open-faced Peanut Butter and Lettuce Sandwich
on Whole Grain Bread
Cauliflowerets
Carrot Sticks
Hard-cooked Free Range Egg
Grapes

Peanut butter and lettuce? I'm not so sure about this one, but I'm up for an adventure!

Eating Out

You know what I forgot? Those sodium- and preservative-packed lunches actually make it pretty easy for me to get in that workout at lunchtime on weekdays. Today was my day off from walking, but it took me a good 10 minutes to assemble my lunch in the kitchen at work. That's going to be tough to pull off the rest of this week when I've only got about 20 minutes to eat... It also took me long enough to make my vintage lunch this morning that my whole sense of timing was thrown off and I actually had to leave the house without my bed made and with dirty dishes in the sink. Eek! Just one little change and everything's a mess. Here's the menu I adapted from the original:

Organic Creamy Broccoli Soup
Open-faced Egg Salad Sandwich on Whole-grain Bread with Lettuce and Tomatoes
Green Pepper Strips
Fruit Salad (Apple, Strawberries, Blueberries)

First, I'll have to say that it was a yummy, filling meal. Even without the Crackers, a second slice of bread, and the Cup Cake. What I might have eaten for lunch today without this mission in place is an Amy's Broccoli Pot Pie with some fruit for dessert. So let's do some basic nutritional comparisons of the non-raw fruit/veggie components of these lunch menus:

Typical pre-mission lunch
Calories: 430
Fat: 22g
Sodium: 630mg
Carbohydrates: 46g
Protein: 11g

Vintage lunch, adapted
Calories: 260
Fat: 19.5g
Sodium: 690mg
Carbohydrates: 32g
Protein: 14g

Interesting... My vintage lunch was better in every respect except for sodium. Boy, that soup sure packs a wallop! I'd bet if I was making the soup from scratch with a low sodium broth, I could make a difference there. I'm loving the drop in the number of calories. Will my lower calorie lunch make a difference in my ability to resist the temptation to snack tonight? It didn't make any difference this afternoon.

I'm sure I'll get better at packing these lunches. It'd help ginormously if I actually owned some good lunch-packing equipment. The American Woman's Cook Book (1945) has some serviceable sounding suggestions on preparing and packing lunches.

Sandwich-making tips:

• Whole grain breads should be used for sandwiches. Graham, whole wheat, oatmeal, brown, raisin, and nut bread are excellent. [I guess they hold up better to sandwich fillings!]
  
  
• Pack lettuce separately, to be added just before eating.
  
  
• Fillings for sandwiches may be packed in small jars and buttered bread in waxed paper included for spreading just before eating.
  

Adding a hot or cold dish:

• Special vacuum containers make it possible to include hot cocoa or hot soup in the lunch, also a creamed vegetable, a hot pudding, or other hot food. The containers should never be filled the night before the lunch is prepared.
  
  
• In the winter have something hot and invigorating in the thermos bottle: Hot soup, coffee, tea, baked beans, hot chocolate, or stew. Something cool and refreshing in the summertime, such as lemonade, tomato juice, fruit juices, chocolate milk shake, milk, iced tea or iced coffee, canned fruit juices.
  

General packing advice:

• Stewed or canned fruits may be carried in any small screw-top container. Cold puddings, custards or similar desserts may also be carried in this manner.
  
  
• All foods not in containers should be wrapped separately in waxed paper before being placed in the box. The neatly wrapped articles should be placed, so far as is possible, in the order in which the lunch will be eaten, so that those found first may be eaten first without disturbing the remainder. The heaviest foods, however, should be placed at the bottom of the box.
  
  
• Articles should be packed compactly in order to prevent the food from shaking about.
  
  
• Lunch boxes should be washed, scalded and aired daily. Those made of lightweight metal are best. Many attractive boxes are now made with a vacuum bottle which fits the box.

It is a bit hard to imagine toting one of those old-fashioned black metal lunchboxes to work with me everyday. (Imagine if I ran into Curly with one of those in my hand!) And yet most of the soft-sided lunch bags I see out there these days don't provide much support for items wrapped in wax paper. The only tools I've got right now are a few plastic sandwich-sized containers and some custard cups with lids. Usually I just toss a few things in my tote bag --- but they're frozen, so no big deal. That arrangement isn't going to cut it when I've got soup to carry along! I'd like to find something that doesn't really look like a lunch box, but provides the same protection to my noonday meal. Any ideas?

Mistress of My Domain

Here it is just after 6:00 p.m. and my meager supper is finished. It can't have been that much smaller than most of my suppers, but for whatever reason it just felt meager tonight. Rats! Looks like I've got a long evening ahead... I think I'll torture myself and tell you all about last night's vintage dinner, courtesy of The American Woman's Cook Book (1945):

Baked Potato
Buttered Turnips
Beet Pickle Salad on Lettuce
Peach Sorbet

Have I ever even baked a potato in my own oven? I don't think I have. Having prepared potatoes umpteen different ways since beginning these vintage dinners, I was truly able to appreciate just how easy making a Baked Potato is for the housewife. It puts the oven through its paces, but, boy, is it worth it! I didn't like turnips years ago, but wanted to give them a try to see if my taste buds have matured. They weren't terrible. I could take 'em or leave 'em. The Peach Sorbet was my reducing-friendly substitute for Orange Sugarless Cake.

Beet Pickle isn't the kind of thing you whip up on a single day, so I compromised by purchasing a jar of Aunt Nellie's Pickled Beets at the supermarket. Many a 1940s housewife would've been able to jazz up a bland-ish meal by stepping into her cellar and picking up a jar of something she'd put up last summer. My maternal grandparents had an earthen cellar under their house and one of the greatest treats for my sisters and me when we were little was getting to unlatch that door, clamber carefully down the wooden steps, and run about in that cool, dark, mysterious space. At the bottom of the steps was a set of shelves filled with preserves of every variety imaginable, including a lovely pickled watermelon rind which must have been Grammie's specialty. I like to imagine that had I the time and space - not to mention the garden - I'd be pickling beets and watermelon rind for my own household stores! Anyway, my 1945 menu originally suggested that the Beet Pickle be suspended with celery in a lemon gelatin. I skipped the gelatin (as I'm sure you could've guessed), combined the diced Beet Pickle with diced celery, and served it on a bed of greens with a dollop of mayonnaise.



I'm not sure which room I was least looking forward to adding to my housekeeping routine in the beginning, but the bathroom placed in the Top Two. It's funny, because it's actually the smallest room in the house. You'd think it'd be a breeze. I absolutely dreaded having to clean the tub and the toilet regularly. Well, I've been doing that week in and week out for about a month now and I've got something to confess...

It's not that bad.

It helps me to break it into pieces and focus on one part of the tub and shower surround at a time - the end wall, the side wall, the shower wall, the tub. Lather, scrub, rinse. Lather, scrub, rinse. Top to bottom. Top to bottom. The tub is just a free-for-all with my trusty Comet, a scrub brush, and some piping hot water. I have a special scrubby sponge dedicated just to the bathroom. When it comes to the toilet, that's where those modern antibacterial wipes come in handy. They used to be my one and only tool when it came to housekeeping - *hanging my head in shame* --- the only thing I use them for now is for cleaning the outside of the toilet and the seat. Heck, even The Manual instructs its readers to have a cloth reserved for nothing more than cleaning the toilet. I think I'll add antibacterial wipes (for use on the toilet) to my small list of modern innovations that are worth their salt.

Did you ever see The Farmer's Wife? It's an amazing documentary about a struggling Nebraska farm family that aired on Frontline in 1998. An example of the very best that television has to offer... Well, there's a scene where Juanita Buschkoetter - farmer's wife and mother of three - is hard at work on her off-farm job. She cleans houses on a part-time basis. She's bending over and cleaning the toilet in this home so much bigger and nicer than her own and she says to the cameraman, "I don't mind cleaning houses, but I hate cleaning other people's toilets." I think of that scene every time I'm cleaning my own toilet and feel grateful in an instant that it's mine and not somebody else's. Juanita would have considered it a lucky break indeed to be able just to keep her own bathroom clean... If you've never seen this film, it's the kind of life-altering television you'll never forget. Netflix it immediatement.

"...when we knew them by the shape of their legs"

Here it is Friday and I haven't posted anything yet about last Sunday's vintage dinner! Thank goodness for "Independence Day Observed" - it gives me the chance to do some serious catching up on all fronts. (I'll do my observing tomorrow.)

Eggs Scrambled with Chopped Chives or Parsley
Salad of Shredded Lettuce and Carrots and Chopped Sweet Pickle
Roll
Blueberry Pudding

Recommended by The American Woman's Cook Book (1945) as a menu for a Saturday evening, this was a wonderful change of pace after a hot summer's day. Just the kind of the meal that would allow a housewife some extra time to get her children through their Saturday night baths... I added some Parsley to my Scrambled Eggs. Most of you could probably scramble eggs with your eyes closed, but I thought you might enjoy seeing a '40s take on the recipe.

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BATTERED OR SCRAMBLED EGGS

In a frying-pan, place one teaspoon of butter for each egg. Beat the eggs until the whites and yolks are well mixed. Season with salt and pepper and add one to three tablespoons of milk or cream for each egg. Pour into the hot fat and cook slowly, stirring constantly until the eggs are of the desired consistency. Serve at once. A little onion-juice or chopped parsley may be added to the eggs, if desired.

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I made the salad using iceberg lettuce, carrot, and chopped sweet gherkins. The whole-wheat roll was purchased at the supermarket --- a nod to the foods commercially available by the 1940s. The Blueberry Pudding was a simple cottage pudding with fresh blueberries added to the batter. It was so good, but I'm afraid it'll be the last of my desserts from these dinner menus for a little while. (The leftovers are way too tasty!) I'm going to substitute either a baked custard, sherbet, or pudding for the vintage suggestions.

The summer rains have moved into this part of the desert. I use the word "rains" loosely - it rains for about 5-10 minutes in the late afternoon - but the storms do stir up some lovely wind and cloudy skies... So it was time to clean my bedroom yesterday evening and a storm had just passed by. For the first time in all these months, I had to find an alternative to airing my bedcovers and pillows on the landing outside my door. The railing was wet and water was still dripping from the roof. Hmmm. What's a good housewife-who's-not-a-wife-and-works-outside-the-home-five-days-a-week to do? I reached for The Manual. Aha!

Remove all bed covers; stretch over end of bed, or over chairs, off the floor.

That - I could do. And at least it gives you a chance to open the windows and air the mattress. Making up my bed again afterwards wasn't quite as satisfying an experience as it usually is. I didn't get to beat the pillows or give the bedcovers a good shake - didn't want to stir up any fresh dust indoors - but it was a decent trade in a pinch.

Have you ever read Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon books? I'm reading the second one, Leaving Home (1987), and there's a thought he expressed in passing that's making me especially mindful these days of the way my legs look. (Mindful to the point where I may have overdone it with my new exercises yesterday --- my legs are aching this morning!) It's a passage in the opening essay to the book that made me think of my legs. A beautiful passage in more ways than one. It makes me laugh and weep a little at the same time. I laugh, because I'd like to be known by my nieces as the aunt with fabulous legs!

When I was little I didn't think of grownups as having bare skin; grownups were made of wool clothing, only kids were bare naked...

Every time I read a book about how to be smarter, how not to be sad, how to raise children and be happy and grow old gracefully, I think "Well, I won't make those mistakes, I won't have to go through that," but we all have to go through that. Everything they went through, we'll go through. Life isn't a vicarious experience. You get it figured out and then one day life happens to you. You prepare yourself for grief and loss, arrange your ballast and then the wave swamps the boat.

Everything they went through: the loneliness, the sadness, the grief, and the tears--it will all come to us, just as it came to them when we were little and had to reach up to get hold of their hand, when we knew them by the shape of their legs. Aunt Marie had fat little legs, I held her hand one cold day after a blizzard, we climbed snowdrifts to get to the store and buy licorice whips. She said, "Come on, we can make it, don't slip," and soon she was far behind, a fat lady in a heavy coat with a fur collar, leaning into the wind, wheezing from emphysema, and sometime later she died. She knew that death was only a door to the kingdom where Jesus would welcome her, there would be no crying there, no suffering, but meanwhile she was fat, her heart hurt, and she lived alone with her ill-tempered little dogs, tottering around her dark little house full of Chinese figurines and old Sunday Tribunes. She complained about nobody loving her or wanting her or inviting her to their house for dinner anymore. She sat eating pork roast, mashed potato, creamed asparagus, one Sunday at our house when she said it. We were talking about a trip to the North Shore and suddenly she broke into tears and cried, "You don't care about me. You say you do but you don't. If I died tomorrow, I don't know as you'd even go to my funeral." I was six. I said, cheerfully, "I'd come to your funeral," looking at my fat aunt, her blue dress, her string of pearls, her red rouge, the powder on her nose, her mouth full of pork roast, her eyes full of tears.

Every tear she wept, that foolish woman, I will weep every one before I am done and so will you. We're not so smart we can figure out how to avoid pain, and we cannot walk away from the death we owe.

So true. For all our modern technologies, shopping malls, and miracle drugs, we can't avoid the mistakes and fears and losses that shaped the lives of our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers, and their great-grandmothers before them... If you've never read any of Keillor's books - or listened to his marvelous Prairie Home Companion on NPR - you've got something wonderful in store. He paints such a frank and beautiful picture of life in a small Minnesota town. His bits in Lake Wobegon Days on the scandal of air conditioning and over-ambitious tomato gardeners --- genius!

Symphony

One of the blessings of having turned off my television is getting to listen to something a little different - the sounds of home. Surely, I must've heard these sounds before, but I guess I never really listened to them...

Like the snap of a clean towel when you're folding laundry. I love to give my towels and washcloths a sharp, precise shake before folding them, just to shake any last wrinkles out before they're folded and tucked away in the linen closet.

And the cheery sound of voices when I turn on my radio in the morning. I usually turn it on as I'm heading into the kitchen to get breakfast started. And whether the news is good or bad, the voices are welcome companionship after a long, quiet night with nothing but the air conditioner to interrupt the calm.

Like the tap-tap-tapping of an egg in a covered pan as it bubbles away for my breakfast. And the ticking of my Toastmaster, growing ever faster as the toast gets closer to the finish. Happy sounds indeed after a long snack-less night!

I love the sound of hissing steam as my iron heats up on Tuesday nights... It's a promising sound - one that betokens a closet soon replenished with smooth, neatly pressed garments.

On Thursday evenings, it's a "Whap! Whap! Whap!" outdoors on the landing when - after airing my bed covers and pillows for an hour - I give the pillows a good shake and smack them against each other a few times. Just to get the dust out. (Though it's handy, too, in working out any workaday frustrations.)

I'd forgotten what a satisfying task snapping string beans can be. And it makes another fantastic sound!

Mashed Potato Cakes
String Beans
Salad of Cottage Cheese Stuffed Prunes
Apple Brown Betty

It was all about comfort food for my vintage dinner last Sunday. Mashed Potato Cakes are a clever way to serve up leftovers. Add salt, pepper, and egg yolk to a dish of cold mashed potatoes. Form into patties, place a dab of margarine on top of each, and bake in a greased pan. Just long enough to brown the bottoms of the patties. The Cottage Cheese Stuffed Prunes made for a very rich salad - which would have been even richer if I'd laced it with French Dressing (as instructed by the recipe)! I've never eaten Apple Brown Betty before, so thought it might turn out something like an apple crisp. Not quite. Kind of like a soft apple crisp - without the crunch. Ruth Berolzheimer, the author of The American Woman's Cook Book (1945), must've been nuts about bread crumbs. They show up practically every week! I'm beginning to get suspicious now every time I see them. Hmmm... what kind of missing ingredient is she trying to cover up with bread crumbs this time?

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!

Meal Plan

Raise your hand if you know how easy it is to make homemade Scalloped Potatoes...

Scalloped Potatoes
Buttered Beets
Carrot Strips
Baked Apple Stuffed with Dates

I was completely caught off-guard when I started preparing my vintage dinner last Sunday evening. I thought Scalloped Potatoes would be one of the tougher potato recipes in my cookbook. Wrong! It's one of the few potato dishes that don't involve having to boil or even parboil the potatoes beforehand. It took me maybe 15 minutes from start to finish, then the oven did the rest of the work. My mom's a wonderful cook, but the only Scalloped Potatoes we ever ate were the rubbery kind that came in a box.

And I think I've discovered the trick to Beets. Boil them in as large a pot as you can find in your cupboard. A five- or six-quart Dutch oven should do the job. Make sure you've got a lid for the pot that fits tightly and don't boil them at too high a temperature. If I don't do any one of these things, I'll end up with pink water stains all over my stovetop! The Baked Apple Stuffed with Dates was quite good, too. But what I love most about it was that I was able to make it in a single serving size. No leftover sweets hanging about this week.

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SCALLOPED POTATOES

6 medium-sized potatoes [I cut this recipe in thirds.]
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons butter
Milk

Pare raw potatoes and cut them into thin slices. Place in a baking dish a layer of the potato one inch deep, season with salt and pepper, sprinkle a portion of the flour over each layer, add a part of the butter in bits. Repeat and continue until required amount is used. It is best not to have more than two or three layers because of difficulty in cooking. Add milk until it can be seen between the slices of potato, cover and bake (350-400 degrees F.) until potatoes are tender with a fork (1 - 1 1/2 hours). Remove the cover during the last fifteen minutes to brown the top. Serve from the baking-dish.

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My transition to healthier snacks (fruits or veggies plus protein) is going pretty well. I'm measuring out the proper serving sizes for now, but hoping to be able just to eyeball them soon.

Hummus = 2 tablespoons
Low-fat Organic Cottage Cheese = 1/2 cup
Almonds = 25 nuts (This seems a bit much. I could probably do just fine with half that or less.)

The only thing that really frustrates me is that I keep forgetting to pack a snack so I can get that late afternoon pick-me-up while I'm still at work instead of being ravenous when I get home at 5:30. I've got to try and remember this tomorrow. Pack both lunch and snack. I'd rather eat a snack at 3:30 or so and not be in such a rush to eat something as soon as I get home.

One of the things I'm rapidly discovering about reducing is how important planning can be. A couple weeks ago, a friend asked me to lunch. I accepted - and then remembered my rule of thumb: "No eating anything I haven't purchased at the grocery store." Well, I did promise myself some exceptions for social occasions, but I had to do some planning so I could enjoy the experience without feeling guilty. I added 30 extra minutes to my walk the day before so I wouldn't miss out on my workout. And I also suggested we hit a restaurant where I knew I could get a yummy salad. This Friday, I'm meeting up with a group for drinks after work. I rarely drink sodas, so I think a diet soda would be treat enough for me. I may not be home 'til late, so maybe I'll check the menu ahead of time and find out if there's something resembling healthy which I might be able to consider dinner.

Here's an example of poor planning. I had promised to babysit my nieces one evening after work. It's tough to cook anything there for yourself with a toddler and baby to mind, so - without even thinking - I figured I'd "pick something up" on the way to their house. That afternoon, I suddenly remembered my then-new rule of thumb. Eek! What would I do? Well, I ended up stopping at a sub shop to pick up a veggie sandwich. It could've been worse, but it could've been better. Next time, I'll pack a dinner from home - something I can heat up quickly.

I'll wrap up this post - which somehow became entirely about food! - with a dilemma facing me for this weekend's vintage dinner. The salad course is a Molded Salad of Cranberry Sauce (canned), Chopped Celery and Apples. I never make molded salads as gelatin is an animal by-product, but do any of you know if it would be possible to mold something using the jellied cranberry sauce that's sold in the can? It certainly starts out molded... I was wondering if it'd be possible to fold the celery and apples into the jelly, then form it into some sort of shape. Any advice?

A Little Bit of Everything...

I'm still slogging away at the bathroom. Ran out of Comet partway through the job yesterday and decided to head on out and do my marketing, then finish the bathroom later. Sadly enough, now it's "later." The Comet has been replenished, I've had a good night's rest, my morning walk is finished. I'll patch off some breakfast and then get back to that miserable room.

My mantra while cleaning the bathroom this week: "It will never again be as hard to clean as it is today." "It will never again be as hard to clean as it is today." "It will never again be as hard to clean as it is today." That's true, I know. As grimy as it is right now, if I'm cleaning it every week - it will never again be anywhere near this bad. Each week, I'll get it even a little shinier. I'm holding on to that! More on bathroom cleaning in another post...

Alas, the coleus I adopted for a houseplant a couple months ago did not survive. It did okay as long as I was taking it outdoors to my landing on weekends. But once it started getting really hot, I worried about leaving it in the intense heat and kept it inside. The colors faded, it shed some leaves, and one day just crumpled up and died. *sigh* My grape ivy is doing well, although one side isn't very perky looking. (That's the side that doesn't even get much artificial light in the corner of the kitchen where I've kept it.) So out it goes! Maybe the fresh air and sunshine will do it some good. I don't want to lose the grape ivy, too!

A co-worker offered me some bell pepper plants last week. Determined to press on in my quest for some great plants about the house - inside and out - I brought home a tiny seedling and a more mature plant, both in pots. I think they might do okay on my landing, but I'll need to water them more often than the succulents. I also picked up a small sansevieria- commonly called a bowstring hemp in the 1940s - to fill the spot near my sink where the coleus used to sit.

Here's one of the things I'm really looking forward to after this interminable summer is over --- my parents will be in town for the winter! They've been doing the snowbird thing and spend a few months most winters at one of the resorts on the edge of the city. I can't claim to be the reason they're here - it's all about the grandbabies - but I love having them so close. And I can't wait to share these vintage dinners with them! (My mother, God bless her, oohs and aahs every time I tell her what I'm up to in the kitchen.) This was last weekend's 1945 dinner menu:

Boiled Rice
Buttered Beet Greens
Orange Salad
Cherry Batter Pudding

I think I've finally got this non-instant rice thing down pat --- now if I could just remember not to make so much. 1/2 cup dry rice is just enough for me + one serving of leftovers. I've always loved Beet Greens - fresh from Mom's garden with a splash of vinegar - yum! The instructions in my cookbook call for you to work with young beets and to chop the roots right up with the greens after they've been boiled. Unfortunately, my supermarket only carries a few raggedy ol' bunches of grown-up beets. So I chopped the tops off these beets - along with the greens - and used those in lieu of young beets. What's great is that the next dinner menu in my cookbook calls for beets, so I may be able to use what's left of 'em in my next homecooked meal.

The Orange Salad was very simple. Chopped orange segments on a bed of greens with a drizzle of viniagrette --- "French dressing" in '40s lingo. I made a substitution for the dessert course. The menu included a Bread Pudding made with Honey. After my last disastrous attempt at Bread Pudding, I just couldn't face it again this soon. So I picked out another recipe in the chapter on puddings and tried to find some way to use up the bottled cherries in my fridge. The Cherry Batter Pudding came out wonderfully - a light, fluffy cake over a layer of fruit - but, between the heat and my unexpected success on the scale Tuesday morning, I haven't had any desire to eat the rest! (Plus I read a horrifying bit of trivia in a magazine the other day. Did you know one cupcake can undo 115 minutes of walking?) I'm not thrilled about wasting food, but I think I should take this as a warning. If I'm going to continue making the desserts for my vintage dinners, I've got to cut the recipe down as small as I would the rice. And I need to invest in some containers for the freezer. There are some things you just can't wrap up in aluminum foil! Speaking of cutting recipes, do any of you know how to cut a one-egg recipe in half?

I've been listening to lots of vintage radio this week, including the second season of The Great Gildersleeve. The second season (1942-1943) is when the program really came into its own. Gildy got a job as Summerfield water commissioner. Leila Ransom, a flirtatious Southern widow, moved into the house next door and stole Gildy's heart. They became engaged and planned a wedding in June - just in time for the season finale and a wild turn of events on the wedding day! Richard LeGrand joined the cast during the second season as Mr. Peavey, the local druggist ("Well, now, I wouldn't say that.") and Floyd Munson, the local barber, pops up every time Gildy heads downtown for a shave. Marjorie got a war job over the winter and began dating a coworker, Ben. At season's end, Ben joined the Navy. Will Marge see other young men while Ben's away?

Kraft spent much of the second season promoting Pabst-Ett, a product that sounds a heck of a lot like Velveeta. Ads often combined a spot for the product with a public service announcement promoting things that might make marketing on the home front a little easier: menu planning, shopping early in the week, and shopping early in the day. Are you a menu maker? Do you find that planning your meals, say, a week in advance, makes feeding your family easier on the pocketbook - or easier on your waistline? Or do you prefer to stock up on the things you like and wait until mealtime to see what you're in the mood for eating?

It's Eight O'Clock Somewhere

Do you remember when Consumer Reports ranked Eight O'Clock Coffee the best brand of Colombian coffee? I don't make coffee at home very often - it's free at work - but I've been impatiently waiting for my supply to run out so I could try some Eight O'Clock for myself. When I finally reached the bottom of the can, I put coffee on my grocery list and picked up a bag of Eight O'Clock in whole bean form, grinding it at the supermarket. It was priced somewhere in the neighborhood of $7. More than I'd usually pay for coffee, but an affordable luxury if I'm only making coffee at home once or twice a week. There was an air of excitement about the Jitterbug place yesterday morning as I measured the Eight O'Clock into my Drip-O-lator... Well, it turned out to be a great cup o' joe! A very smooth flavor without any of the aftertaste I've gotten used to with store brand coffee. In honor of the occasion, I thought I'd post some tips on coffee making from The American Woman's Cook Book (1945). First, the all-important measurement:

For weak coffee, use 1 level tablespoon coffee to 1 cup water.

For medium coffee, use 2 level tablespoons coffee to 1 cup water.

For strong coffee, use 3 level tablespoons coffee to 1 cup water.

There were all kinds of methods for making coffee in the '40s. Drip coffee makers - the ancestors to our modern Mr. Coffee - seem to have been the most popular as the cookbook addresses these first:

FILTERED OR DRIP COFFEE - There are many coffee-pots on the market for making filtered coffee. They all contain some sort of a strainer which allows the water to drip through the coffee very slowly. Pulverized coffee should be used for this method. Place the coffee in the strainer and pour boiling hot water over it. If the infusion is not strong enough, refilter it. Serve immediately. Glass tricolators of oven glass ware are excellent for making filtered coffee, as they hold the heat well.

BOILED COFFEE - Put the coffee into the pot with the white of an egg or some egg-shells and a little cold water and stir all together thoroughly. Pour boiling water over it and place on the stove. Cover the spout of the coffee-pot or stuff it will paper to preserve the aroma. As soon as it boils up, reduce the heat and allow it to settle. A quarter of a cup of cold water poured in will cause the coffee to settle more quickly. Do not allow it to become muddy by careless pouring. To avoid this, decant it into a hot serving-pot.

PERCOLATED COFFEE - Use the correct size percolator for the number to be served. Measure fresh-running cold water into pot to same number of cups. Measure coffee, finely ground or pulverized into the basket, using 1 heaping tablespoonful to cup of water. Use medium hot or flame until percolating begins, then lower flame and continue for 8 to 10 minutes, when the liquid in the glass cap is light brown or deep amber. Serve at once. Prolonged percolating dissipates the fine aroma and flavor.

Has it really been a week since my last vintage dinner? I don't think I've shared the results yet. Here's the menu:

Peanut Roast

Pennsylvania Cabbage Slaw with Sour Cream Dressing

Dried Apricot Cake

The recipe for Peanut Roast was clearly the dream of some well-intentioned person with a misconception that protein can come from a limited variety of sources. Desperate to put some protein on the table during wartime, the author combined a whole mess of chopped peanuts with onions, garlic, bread crumbs, egg, and "pea pulp" (I used a can of condensed green pea soup). They suggested serving it with a cream sauce --- and I can see why. It's a very dry dish. You'd definitely want to smother it with something creamy and flavorful! This one didn't even get turned into leftovers, but I tried to finish my plate and thanked God that we've discovered soy since Peanut Roast was dreamed up.

The Pennsylvania Cabbage Slaw was absolutely lovely! A quick and dirty version of cole slaw, and a cool side dish that'd be perfect for a summer evening. The Dried Apricot Cake was very good as well. I chose it from the cookbook when I realized the Apricot Whip originally on the menu was made with raw egg whites. The Dried Apricot Cake was sweet and moist and pretty easy to make once I'd finished stewing the apricots. It's funny to me still that I can actually leaf through a cookbook now and find any number of recipes where I've already got all the ingredients at hand. The bennies of a well-stocked pantry! I'm going to post the Pennsylvania Cabbage Slaw recipe as it was definitely the star of the show last week. Any Keystone Staters out there who know why this dish is named after Pennsylvania?

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PENNSYLVANIA CABBAGE SLAW

2 cups shredded cabbage

1 green or red pepper, cut fine

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Sour Cream Salad Dressing [see below]

Mix shredded cabbage, pepper and salt; pour dressing over cabbage and mix well. Makes 6 portions.

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SOUR CREAM SALAD DRESSING

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons vinegar [I used apple cider vinegar]

1 cup sour cream

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Makes 1 cup.

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"...one more glass to the good"

You know something I love about the 21st century? We've learned that you don't have to beat your vegetables into submission by boiling them to a pulp and smothering them in white sauce, bread crumbs, and cheese!

Parsley Potatoes
Baked Broccoli
Lettuce and Tomato Salad
Coconut Blanc Mange
Cherry Sauce

I guess the good thing about a dish like Baked Broccoli is that it makes a simpler broccoli recipe look absolutely lovely in comparison. There are so many lighter and more flavorful things you can do with an easygoing veggie like this one. The Parsley Potatoes were tasty as always. The Lettuce and Tomato Salad was a surprise! I had only glanced at the recipe before Sunday and didn't get a full picture of what was in store for me. Very Art Deco... like shiny, little, red domes on the salad plate...

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Lettuce and Tomato Salad

3 Tomatoes
Lettuce leaves
6 tablespoons French dressing

Scald the tomatoes, remove the skins and chill the tomatoes. Just before serving time, cut them in halves, crosswise, and place one piece, with the outside upward, on each serving-plate with one or two leaves of white, crisp lettuce underneath. Pour over each portion a tablespoon of French dressing.

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The Coconut Blanc Mange was, well, meh. Kind of a soft, bland pudding with the coconut doing must of the job at holding it all together. It might've been a little better if made with whole milk. Or maybe a dash of coconut extract. My Cherry Sauce was a miserable failure. It never really thickened and the ingredients didn't meld. Well, it's probably for the best that I'm not discovering fabulous new desserts these days!

Today marks the second day of my new water regime. I set the goal for this mission at eight 8-ounce glasses per day as that seems to be the gold standard when it comes to H2O. Apparently, that rule of thumb has been around for awhile. Dr. Walter H. Eddy, a professor of physiological chemistry, was interviewed for a newspaper article in July 1940 and advised that adults drink two quarts of water per day to maintain optimum health. What do you know, two quarts = 64 ounces!

After using a measuring cup marked with ounces to determine how much water the various glasses in my cabinet held, I figure I was probably drinking about 40 ounces per day before this mission. I downed 64 ounces yesterday without much difficulty, but I'm not there yet today and the day is short. I think I've just got to remind myself --- when I'm thirsty, reach for water first.

The Evening Independent's Alicia Hart weighed in on this very topic in December 1943:

Few of us ever drink the eight glasses of water a day which are recommended for health and a clear complexion. Maybe it's the idea of eight glasses all together that appalls us. But properly spaced throughout the day, eight glasses are not as many as you imagine.

For instance, petal-skinned film star Gene Tierney, who has just kept a date with the stork but will be back at the studios very shortly, makes a habit of having a tall glass of warm water with a half lemon squeezed in it before breakfast each morning.

If you like, add a teaspoonful of mineral honey - clover or alfalfa - to make it more palatable. It's a marvelous morning pick-up and a boon to clearer, smoother complexions.

And when you feel hungry in the middle of the day, yet you know very well that you ate a substantial enough lunch, drink a tumbler of water. It'll fill the void and you'll be just one more glass to the good.

Also, if you've been trying to lose weight, drink a glass before lunch or dinner and you won't want to eat so much. No, actually, eight glasses a day aren't too hard to take at all.

"Lady, Better Lose Those Hips!"

I wish I could tell you that my workouts leave me energized and full of pep, but they don't. At two weeks, I was feeling a new spring in my step. At four weeks, I'm just feeling all broken down. My lower back aches. My left knee feels a little sore. And I had forgotten just how painful 100-degree weather can be. Going outdoors at noon these days feels like climbing inside an oven. (Those lunchtime walks are going to have to shift indoors next week!) I'm hanging in there because I'm seeing results, but the last week has not been easy. I keep wishing I'll get to this magical point when I look forward to my walks. When I can't wait to get out there and move! Nope, still torture.

There are a few things I've begun doing to try and make these walks a little easier on my body. I have been remembering to wear a baseball cap - even at 7:00 in the morning on the weekends - so at least I don't have to worry any longer about getting my scalp or forehead sunburned. I purchased some SPF 55 sunblock this weekend to protect my neck and arms, particularly on those mid-day walks. My knees and back would probably appreciate my bringing some socks and sneakers to work for the week so those lunchtime workouts can be a little easier on my joints. And I've been putting it off, but I really should be doing some stretching after my walks.

Yesterday, I did some looking about online for tips on stretching. What a surprise to learn that you're not supposed to stretch before a walk! Apparently, you can really injure yourself by stretching cold muscles like that. You're supposed to warm the muscles by walking at an easy pace for awhile before speeding up to a brisk pace. The ideal walk should end by doing another stretch at an easy pace, then some simple stretches for the legs, lower back, and shoulders. I'm no personal trainer, so I'll just refer you to one of many interesting websites on this subject. I tried the first three stretches myself after my walk this morning:

http://www.helium.com/items/455379-best-stretches-before-walking-for-exercise

Alas, I haven't been able to find much in the way of vintage advice on post-walk stretching. Lots of advice on stretching for better posture - and lots and lots of "limbering" exercises - but nothing specific to flexing and relaxing the muscles used in a good, brisk walk. 1940s beauty experts acknowledged that walking was an effective way to trim the figure, but they didn't treat it quite as scientifically as they did most things. Betty Clark had a few recommendations in a women's page article titled "Lady, Better Lose Those Hips!" (St. Petersburg Times, September 24, 1943):

Walking, which is the best hip-slimmer known, is pretty difficult to do by the mile when time is at a premium, especially today - unless you are fortunate enough to walk to and from your daily work. This doesn’t mean strolling. Walking, to be effective, should be at a brisk, steady pace.

It is wise to exercise in the morning upon arising. Otherwise, you may find yourself too tired for exertion in the evening.

In a 1940 column, Miss Clark advised wearing sensible shoes when walking for sport --- and, by all means, put some "knee action" into your walk "for the sake of grace"! Helen Follett, another beauty expert of the era, wrote in 1940:

The thigh bulge comes to women who sit at their desks, typewriters or sewing tables all day. They don't get enough exercise to keep the muscles strong. Fibers grow slack, adipose tissue builds up. Squatting exercises are helpful, so is high kicking. Walking at a brisk pace is recommended.

Something that's been troubling me lately is that so many of my shirts are ending up with grease stains. Just one stain per shirt (always in the chest area), but it's enough to make them unsuitable for anything but wearing at home. I'm not sure why I don't notice it when it happens, but by the time I do - usually at the ironing board - it's too late. The shirt has been through the wash, and the stain is set. And it's not that I've been doing that much cooking with hot oil. I'm not sure why I'm ending up with all the grease stains. I guess it's just that I'm cooking more in general. Even scrambling eggs or making an omelet means I'm working over spattering grease. Several shirts later, it's finally occurred to me that there's a reason women used to wear those full aprons with the placket covering the chest. They weren't just for looks! And the half aprons that I usually wear don't do the job. From now on, it's full aprons for me... I've got two of them, and I'm looking for a place in my kitchen where I can keep them within arms' reach. No excuses. I can't afford to keep buying new shirts!!!

It's Sunday, which means it's time for another 1945 dinner. Here's my menu for tonight:

Parsley Potatoes

Baked Broccoli

Lettuce and Tomato Salad

Coconut Blanc Mange

Cherry Sauce

From everything I've heard about Blanc Mange, I'm a little creeped out. I think I'll make as small a batch of dessert tonight as possible!