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.
11 comments:
Here is an idea about turnip, turnip by itself is not exciting. My family being partly from England always mashed carrots and turnip together with butter , salt and pepper. This is a christmas and thanksgiving memory and I love it today. I hope you will too...
i don't mind cleaning the toilet... just splash in some bleach give is a scrub and you're done... the shower walls are a nightmare though...
When I was around 10 years old my mother told me to make baked potatoes for dinner. She said, "stick a knife in the potatoes and cook it for 1 hour at 400". She returned from her errand to find her best steak knives burning in the potatoes in the oven! She never told me to take the knife out of the potato and I thought it helped cook the inside better! LOL!
The best part of the whole story is, as I was retelling this to my husband, my BROTHER got upset because he said the story was about HIM and HE was the one who put the knife in the potatoes. And would you believe that to this day, we both think we were the ones who ruined my mother's knives!
Jeanne, I like that idea! I'll try it sometime...
Weenie_Elise, yes, those shower walls can seem like cleaning a skyscraper sometime.
TGH, that's so funny!!! Have you managed yet to sort out who was mother's little helper? I don't know myself which way is better, but my cookbook actually instructs you NOT to pierce the skin of the potato. Even when you're checking if it's done, just to squeeze it gently with a hand wrapped in a dishtowel.
I like turnips mashed with potatoes with butter and garlic whipped with sourcream. Quite yummy. I love pickled beets, I think I am now going to serve them tonight with my pot roast that is currently baking as I work on my ironing.
I have to say for me the base of the toilet is the most annoying part of the whole bathroom. I don't know why. There is just something unsavory about wiping that area along the base of the toilet all the way round where it meets the floor. It is often sweating if it is warmer and it just seems unseemly in some way. Odd, non? By the way, you inspired me with beets and last night I made Harvard Beets (I'm gonna put the recipe on the blog if you want to try it) it was quite yummy and so pretty.
There's nothing odd about that! I don't like being down there on my knees that close to my toilet, period... I'm glad you had some fun with beets! Thanks for the tip on turnips, too. :)
It's too bad there's not a vegetarian-friendly version of gelatin out there. I hate to think what you're missing by not being able to serve one of the "congealed salads" that were so popular during the forties.
Hmmm...ok, you're my inspiration for tomorrow's blog post here at the bungalow. Think I'll do something from my 1940's Knox gelatin cookbook!
Shay, there are actually a few things - like agar, which is derived from seaweed - that are supposed to function like gelatin. I haven't laid my hands on any just yet, but I'll have some fun experimenting to look forward to!
I just made pickled beets this week! And sweet pickle relish. I love the feeling of fulfillment I get from canning.
And "The Farmer's Wife" is a great documentary for city folks who don't know much about rural economy.
Kay, your kitchen must've been one steamy place! What fun you'll have eating those wonderful preserves over the winter...
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