41 + 3 = 44

It's gotta be all kinds of wrong to celebrate another 3 lb. weight loss and simultaneously rave about my new Butterscotch Biscuit recipe! Nevertheless, I've got to do both this morning. In fact, we've got a lot to catch up on. Let me put a pot of coffee on first...

I weighed in at 150 this morning which means I've lost 44 lbs. since beginning this vintage reducing and fitness routine in April! 1 more lb. and I can officially visit a doctor's office without the nurse having to move that slide on the scale up a whole 'nother notch. You know the slide I'm talking about? That great divide between weighing 100 something and 150 something - or 200 something, for that matter. (Been there!) My mini-goal of 145 is just 5 lbs. away now, so I'm upping the ante. I've got to make it by November 7.

My breakfast this morning is clearly not going to be contributing! The Butterscotch Biscuits were tres delicieux, but not the kind of treat to be enjoyed on a regular basis. These biscuits just melt in your mouth --- which is never a good thing for a reducer! I'm packing the rest of this batch into the freezer as soon as they're fully cooled. They were fairly easy to make. Took me about 20 minutes - and only 10 minutes to bake. Start by mixing up a batch of Baking Powder Biscuits dough. Here's where things get interesting:

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BUTTERSCOTCH - Roll dough to a rectangular sheet and brush with softened butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and roll up like a jelly roll. Cut into 1-inch slices and place cut side down on greased baking sheet or in greased muffin pan.

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So I had my first date in six years on Thursday evening. And lived to tell the tale! I thought I might perish from nerves about 15 minutes before I left the house. My first instinct was to eat something sinful, but I ate a banana instead and it did the trick. As soon as I met the guy and could see how nervous he seemed, it calmed me down. One of us had to be relaxed, right? We met for a cup of coffee at this restaurant which serves dessert only. (No dessert for me, thanks!) The emailer was more handsome than he looked in in his pictures. Tall and slim with a pianist's fingers. He was soft spoken with a careful, deliberate way of talking. But still... very little interest it seems in actually getting to know more about me. He's never even asked me the easy questions. You know, the kind of stuff you'd ask a new co-worker or somebody you just met at a cocktail party. Instead he showed me all the apps on his iPhone. Yep. His iPhone. Is that the 21st century equivalent of showing a potential mate what you've been able to club and drag back to the cave?

I'm not sure what happens next. I shook his hand good-bye and told him I'd had a nice time. He didn't suggest seeing each other again and neither did I. (I didn't suggest that he call on my mother, either!) I'd be open to a second date, but he hasn't emailed me since Thursday evening. And I haven't a clue what he thought of me. Couldn't even hazard a guess. He was very guarded. Perhaps I'd better reach for my New American Etiquette (1941). What kind of advice on "dating" does Lily Haxworth Wallace have to offer this week?

No girl or young woman should ever visit, upon his invitation alone, the home of a man who lives with female relatives. Before she can go, she must have an invitation from one of the ladies.

One of the most troublesome questions that has arisen because of the modern freedom of relations between the sexes is whether or not a girl or young woman may visit a man in his apartment alone.

The answer is almost invariably "No" but there can be many circumstances that make it seem proper. A girl from a small town, on a visit to the city, might call upon and have dinner with a man from her home town. Where is the harm in that? A bride-to-be would certainly be in no danger if she visited her fiance in his rooms? Dozens of other similar examples could be given.

According to the rigid rules of etiquette, it must not be done. There are many conservatives who would severely disapprove and certainly Mrs. Grundy can be expected to take full advantage of any such "goings on." According to the same rules of proper living, it would seem that whether it is right or wrong depends entirely upon the girl. When a girl considers going alone to the man's apartment, she should ask herself just one question:

"Would I do this if I knew my mother, Mrs. Grundy, and everyone I know sees me enter?"

If the answer to that question is "Yes," where can the harm be? If the answer is "No," the visit had better not be made.

It is even considered improper for two or three girls to visit in a man's rooms unless an older woman - a chaperon - is present.

Neither can one girl with another young couple make the visit with any more propriety than she could alone.

At any party given by a bachelor in his apartment, older persons, who will serve the purpose of chaperons, should always be present.

It is perfectly all right, however, for two girls to take tea with a college man in his rooms.

If you are willing to make the visit and thus dare Mrs. Grundy, make it a point to leave early. Do not remain after nine o'clock or, at the very latest, ten. If you go during the day, do not stay long. Mrs. Grundy only needs to have a man and woman together for one minute to tell some dreadful tales. Three or four hours might keep her busy for a year. Be sensible about this matter. Do not give people any excuse for gossip for only a few minutes of fleeting pleasure. Weigh the scales well to determine whether more good or harm may come to you because of the visit.

7 + 4 = 11

A week or so ago, I was studying up on dusting painted walls and learned that - instead of buying a dust mop especially for that purpose - you could fashion a sort of "apron" for the head of the broom out of a piece of flannel and use that to softly sweep the dust from your bedroom walls. Well, yesterday I was giving the bathroom its special monthly cleaning and came across that chore once again in The Manual. I was playing around with a flannel dusting cloth and realized that I could actually fashion a kind of kerchief for my broom. I centered the cloth across the end of the broom head and held down the piece facing me while I pulled both of the sides together and tied them. My broom looked a little bit like a woman of the '40s heading off to work at the war plant! And most importantly it did the job.

Another little thrill this past week has been the success I had with a recipe called Graham Gems. Imagine all the goodness of home-baked biscuits with the added heartiness of whole grains. To die for... The recipe starts out with a basic Baking Powder Biscuit dough, only you substitute one cup graham flour for one cup sifted flour.

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BAKING POWDER BISCUITS

2 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold shortening
2/3 cup cold milk

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and cut in shortening with 2 knives or a pastry blender. Add milk and mix quickly. Knead for a few seconds on a lightly floured board...

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You could stop there, pop 'em in the oven, and they'd be perfect. But the recipe for Graham Gems actually calls for a little more creativity. I didn't have 8 to 10 custard cups on hand, so I used a muffin tin and they turned out fine. I guess they're supposed to look a little like gemstones --- maybe if you squint your eyes. Like I said, though, you could just cut them with a biscuit cutter and bake at the same temperature and they'd be just as delicious. Super easy, too. I made these on a work morning.

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GRAHAM GEMS - Roll dough 1/3 inch thick... and cut into 2-inch strips. Place 4 strips one on top of the other. Cut into pieces 1 3/4 inches long. Place each of these sections upright in buttered custard cup. Bake in hot oven (425 degrees F.) 15 to 20 minutes or until browned. Makes 8 to 10.

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It's been nearly two weeks since I added some limbering and stretching exercises to my morning routine, so it's high time I gave them a little attention in my blog. I do the first exercise before I get out of bed. In fact, I'm usually still partly asleep. My legs most certainly do not go over my head, but it really works the abdominal muscles just raising the legs until they're perpendicular to the body - then lowering them:

1. Before you get out of bed in the morning, do this routine five times: stretch body out with arms out at sides. Lift both legs simultaneously as high as you can, even, if you can, over your head; then down again, slowly.

I do the next several exercises while I'm sipping my morning glass of water and am still in my nightclothes. None of these next exercises really instructs you as to an exact number of reps, so I've been doing five of each. No. 2 opens up the ribcage and probably works the abs as well when done slowly and carefully:

2. Here is a good stretching exercise that helps to develop the bust and improves the posture and figure generally: Stand with feet slightly apart, arms down at sides. Stretch arms in front up and over the head slowly as far as you can, without straining, then slowly return to original position. Repeat this several times.

I haven't quite felt No. 3 working anything more than my waist as yet, but I'm open to some improvement in the hips!

3. To improve hips and waist and improve general line of figure: (A) Stand with feet slightly apart, abdomen in, seat well down, fingers interlaced and raised high over head, arms making a frame for the face. Keep face framed by arms throughout exercise, and body absolutely steady from waist down. (B) Swing forward till body and arms are horizontal. Swing body round to right side and travel upwards till arms are over head once more. (C) Turn to the left and swing the body round and down till body and arms are once again horizontal, as in B.

No. 4 makes me yawn. In a good way. I do feel more awake after doing this exercise:

4. The first exercise is for the purpose of air washing the lungs and keeping the chest in form: Stand erect, feet fairly far apart; clasp your hands behind your neck. Force the head and elbows back, inhale through the nostrils, expel the air through the lips. Breathe in as the head goes back; exhale as you return to first position.

You gotta love deep knee bends! All of the advice I've heard by fitness experts in my own lifetime comes back to me now in bits and pieces. In the '80s, my sisters and I would work out in the basement to a Jane Fonda record of our mom's. ("Bridge over Troubled Waters" was the cool-down track.) By the '90s, step aerobics were all the rage and I remember working out with Denise Austin on TV and ordering her step and weights set on QVC. Jane and Denise alike cautioned women at home to be sure the legs were positioned far enough apart and the knees slightly bent before doing exercises like this one:

5. This for keeping waist, thighs and hips slender. Stand tall, hands on hips. Lift on your toes, let the knees spread, lower your body until you are in a squatting position, buttocks resting on the heels. Rise slowly.

Allow plenty of space when doing this exercise or your liable to hit something with your arms! The last few words are great advice. The more conscious you are of the movements you're making, the better you're probably working the muscles. If you zip thru the motions, you may not get all the benefits of doing fewer reps more slowly.

6. Wig-wagging exercise for keeping bust and arms normal: Stand tall, lift the hands high and far back. Swing the hips from one side to the other, stretching the arms full length, keeping fingers and thumbs spread. Use your muscles. Be conscious of them. Mere movements don’t mean a thing. It must be a real workout.

I'm not sure if it's the humidity or the limbering-and-stretching or the smaller portions at dinner, but something's working. I weighed in this morning at 183! According to my scale, that's 4 lbs. lost in the last 6 days. HIP HIP HOORAY!!! I thought I'd celebrate with this wonderful series of photos from a 1940 LIFE magazine pictorial on reducing salons. (And I thought Bally's didn't look like fun.)

Week Ten: The Mission

I was planning a quick trip to the grocery store after work yesterday - just a few things on my list. One of them was grapefruit for this morning's breakfast. Happily, it's grapefruit season here in the Southwest, and a coworker brought me in a bag of grapefruit from the tree in his yard! It's interesting how different these grapefruit look from the ones we buy in the store. They're kind of pear shaped, for one. You can see just by looking at 'em how they hang on the tree. The fruit is heavier at the non-stem end. They also have a much thicker pith. In fact, there was probably about 50% less fruit. Lots more juice, though.

Here's this morning's menu (and tomorrow's, as I have leftover biscuits):

Grapefruit

Baking Powder Biscuits

It was a tasty breakfast. Not as filling as a whole-grain cereal or eggs might have been. The Biscuits were super quick. A cup did the trick today, but I'll have to add a biscuit cutter to my growing list of needs for a vintage home.

Speaking of shopping, my mission for this coming week will be to do some "light" marketing on Wednesday evenings. Housewives in the '40s made multiple trips to multiple stores over the course of a week to buy groceries, toiletries, and household supplies. They might have been able to have groceries delivered in a pinch - and this was still the era of door-to-door salesmen - but they probably spent a fair amount of time walking or driving to the pharmacy, the bakery, the green goods grocer, the shoe repairman, etc. Today, our supermarkets and discount department stores are so massive that we can find most of what we need under two roofs.

I probably make three shopping trips per week (unless something special comes up). A trip to the supermarket, a trip to Trader Joe's, and a trip to Walgreen's. I buy my eggs and dairy and a few other odds and ends at Trader Joe's. There are some incredible prices on produce at another natural foods market, so I stop there sometimes. (They also have a good selection of flours - which has been such a help with these 1945 breakfast menus.) So my own habits in this respect fall quite easily into vintage marketing patterns.

The manual has one recommendation as to timing:

The bulk of marketing should be done on a day when local stores offer special prices. Often Friday and Saturday are bargain days.

I might be wrong, but I don't think any modern supermarkets have sale prices effective just one day per week. They seem to offer sale prices that change once a week, but are effective all week long. I'm going to set aside some time on Saturdays to do the "bulk" of my marketing (a trip to the supermarket) with Wednesday evenings dedicated to a shorter trip to either Trader Joe's or the natural foods store. Those two trips - at opposite ends of the week - should keep my pantry in good order. Wouldn't it be nice never to run short of things? Not to have to make any emergency stops here and there to pick up what I might have been stocked up on with better planning?