"...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.