The Rewards of Minimalism

My breakfast menus for the last two days were published in November 1943 by Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. in a booklet titled Meal Planning Guide. It was probably one of those giveaway-type things you send for with a self-addressed stamped envelope and a dime. Thursday's menu was super simple:

Tomato Juice

Ready-prepared Whole Grain Cereal

I tried the Weetabix again that I bought last month when I was looking for a whole-grain cereal I could serve hot. It's much, much better cold! Today's menu:

Applesauce

Corn Meal Griddle Cakes

Syrup

The Griddle Cakes were a little tricky. It was a very leisurely kind of recipe, with lots of stop and go. After boiling water, you poured it over a bowl of Corn Meal and set that to one side to wait for it to "swell." Then you added milk to the mixture and waited for it to cool down. Finally, it was time to add your dry goods, and - just before pouring it onto the griddle - fold a beaten egg into the batter. Corn Meal Griddle Cakes also took a bit longer on the griddle than did your plain ol' everyday Griddle Cakes. Like I said, a leisurely recipe. By the time my first batch was finished, it was almost time to leave for work. I think I must have inhaled my breakfast... I hardly remember what they tasted like! Well, I've got plenty of leftovers, so I'll take my time to enjoy them tomorrow morning.

Cleaning the bedroom last night was surprisingly easy. Yep, you heard it here first --- easy! I followed the steps recommended by the manual to a tee. You can kind of break the routine down into five parts. 1) Emptying the room out - hanging the bed covers outside to air, removing the sheets, bringing all the bric-a-brac out to the kitchen for dusting. 2) Bringing equipment into the room - vacuum cleaner, cleaning basket, clean linens. 3) Doing up the bed. 4) Dusting and vacumming. 5) Bringing the bric-a-brac back into the room and giving things a final straightening.

Not so bad. Of course it helps that I don't have very many things in the way of furnishings to clean. I moved cross-country two years ago and didn't bring anything that I couldn't fit in my car. So my apartment isn't exactly overstuffed these days. The manual attends to all kinds of items I didn't have to dust or brush or polish last night: no lamps, no dresser scarves, no draperies, no woodwork, no radiators, no baseboard, no upholstered furniture, no glass table tops, no shades, no curtains, no ash trays. That certainly made things easier. (And to think how much time I've spent wishing I could afford to have my stuff shipped out here!)

My bedroom doesn't feel all that much cleaner than normal, but the sheets have been changed, the carpet's been vacuumed, and the dust has been shooed back into the corners. And just doing that much every week - week in and week out - will be a big improvement. I think I'm going to add one or two of those "if necessarys" next Thursday, though, and step this up a notch.

Ergonomics and the Ironing Board

There's been nothing particularly lavish or budget-consuming about my "new" breakfast menus so far:

Tomato Juice

French Toast

Maple Sirup

I am getting better at divvying up some of these recipes to make sure I'm only making enough for one or two breakfasts. The first time I found French Toast on the menu, I went in there gangbusters and - before I knew it - had 12 pieces made! Thankfully, the Tomato Juice added an extra punch of health to my meal this morning, kinda balanced off the empty calories on my plate.

Ironing Day may still be three days off, but my vintage housekeeping manuals have lots of advice to offer on ironing - and ironing equipment. Here are some tips on choosing and positioning the ironing board:

The ironing board should be adjusted to correct height - 32 1/2 inches from the floor is correct for workers of average height.

My own ironing board is one of those dreadful tabletop affairs. I usually end up hunched over the board ironing on top of my bed or on the ottoman in my living room - sometimes I just set the board up on the floor. Even the authors of my manuals knew that ergonomics played a part in making ironing a wee bit easier. The best boards (during the 1940s, they were available in both wood and metal) were adjustable so that a woman of any height would be comfortable while ironing. Women who preferred to stand while ironing were encouraged to invest in a rubber mat to ease tired leg muscles. Those who preferred to sit should choose a high stool "with a support at the back and possibly a rung or rest for your feet."

Remember that an electric iron can be plugged into a wall socket anywhere... If the north bedroom is the coolest spot in the house on a broiling July day, that is the logical place to take your ironing.

Both manuals urge their readers to position the ironing board in a some location where they will have good light - whether from a window or from a lighting fixture. And of course it should be close to an electric outlet. It was also important to choose a location where you could keep an eye on the children. Ironing was such a time-consuming task, you needed to be able to keep an eye on children at play in the yard.

For women lucky enough to be planning new postwar homes, they were advised to seriously consider having a "built-in" ironing board installed in a location that met all these criteria.

I think I'll have a look about the house tomorrow and see if I can find a good spot to position my ironing board.

Sorting and Subdividing

The 1940s housewife had lots to do before she even set to work with her washing machine, so I sat down this evening to sort my dirty laundry. Here are the steps my manual recommends for sorting:

1. Separate clothes into piles according to type and color:
Table linen - white and colored
Bed linen and towels - white and colored
White and colorfast cotton and linen garments
Colored cotton and linen garments, not colorfast
White silks and rayons
Colored silks and rayons
White woolens
Colored woolens

2. Subdivide these piles, if necessary, into lightly soiled and heavily soiled pieces.

3. As you sort the clothes, watch for spots and stains that have escaped notice, and remove them before the articles are washed.

4. Mend rips and tears before washing (except in undergarments and stockings) to save time and stitches later on.

5. Remove pins and clips.

6. Empty pockets.

7. If you are not absolutely sure that any new article is colorfast to washing, put it aside and wash it separately the first time.

8. Handkerchiefs that have been used by persons suffering from colds or sinusitis should never be put in the hamper, and should be laundered separately. (The use of soft paper tissues by these sufferers is to be highly recommended, as they may be disposed of quickly after use, lessening danger of infection.)

So my bedroom floor is now covered in piles of clothes:

Table linen - colored
Bed linen and towels - white and colored
White and colorfast cotton and linen garments
Colored cotton and linen garments, not colorfast

The sixth pile is a heap of garments made from substances not yet invented at the time the manual was written. All but two of them are a blend of cotton and spandex - which I've just learned was invented in 1959. Two items are made from blends of Modal with cotton or spandex. Apparently, this is a variety of rayon made from the cellulose of beech trees. It's been around since 1965, but is only now becoming a popular clothing textile. My manual doesn't give me any guidance about what to do with items made from a blend of fibers, so I'm going to sort them with the fiber that makes up the majority of the garment... Okay, my sixth pile now contains only one piece:

Colored silks and rayons

I'm reading a little farther on in the manual and it turns out that the only special washing directions apply to non-colorfast cotton and linen, silks and rayons, and woolens. Would the authors frown on me for combining the rest of my items - sorting only for color? That brings me down to just four piles, one of which contains only a single "rayon" item and that can probably be washed by hand. Two of the three remaining piles are big enough for the washer. I'd like to use a bleach with the whites, so I think I'll save that pile for next Monday.

Thank goodness my breakfast this morning gave me fuel for all this decision making!

Orange Juice
Buckwheat Griddlecakes
Sirup

If you've never had Buckwheat Griddlecakes before - like me! - you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. They tasted just like your basic Griddlecake, but they were as dark as gingerbread - and much, much moister and lighter than the Griddlecakes I've been able to make using the recipe in my 1945 cookbook. Must be the molasses. I made enough for leftovers, so that should make tomorrow's breakfast a little easier on the washerwoman. Off to soak some stains!

Wheat-yuck-a!

How the brand has survived for more than a century, I'll never know. Wheatena blows.

I've been scouring the grocery stores looking for something which might fill the bill for Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal, and I was so happy to find Wheatena at Fry's. When I told my mother yesterday that I vaguely remembered one hot cereal she used to make that was absolutely atrocious, she said she thought it might have been Wheatena and my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. Here's my 1945 menu for breakfast this morning:

Apple Juice

Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal with Maple Sirup

The Maple Sirup is actually a substitute for Shaved Maple Sugar. I've checked several places looking for Maple Sugar - even some of those maple sugar candies shaped like maple leaves. Finally decided just to substitute the Maple Sirup. Was Maple Sugar available in large quantities in the '40s? Could you buy it in boxes like brown sugar and confectioner's sugar?

I tried so hard to jazz myself up as I was cooking the Wheatena. "Think of those golden sheaves of wheat, baking in the sun on the prairie." "Think of the nutty, roasty-toasty goodness of whole wheat." "Think of the yummy Maple Sirup on top." It was just as atrocious as I remembered. Tastes like eating a pile of chaff. And I had to floss a couple times just to get all the little bits of husk out of my teeth before leaving the house.

*sigh*

So, after all that trauma, I was looking around online for a picture of the Wheatena box and - come to find out - Wheatena is actually considered Cracked Wheat. Cracked Wheat Cereal is mentioned in another upcoming menu. The cookbook's author must have had an entirely different breakfast in mind when she described Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal. I wonder if she meant Ralston. I've seen lots of vintage ads for "Ralston Hot" which was 100% whole wheat. The world of hot cereals is still such a jungle to me. I'll bet a '40s housewife would have known right away what it meant when she saw references in a cookbook to Cracked Wheat Cereal, Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal, Cooked Wheat Cereal, and so on.

At any rate, it looks like I've got another bowl of Wheatena to look forward to in a few days. Am I missing some critical step in preparing it for the table? A dash of fairy dust or something? I followed the instructions on the box, and they're pretty simple: Bring water, salt, and Wheatena to a hard boil, then drop to low boil for four or five minutes.

Better keep the floss handy!

Grade A Medium Amber

I found a loophole.

My breakfast menu yesterday:

Tomato Juice
French Toast
Maple-flavored Sirup

With visions of corn syrup and maple extract, I opened the cookbook to the recipe for French Toast - or Fried Toast, as it was also still known in 1945. And what to my wondering eyes did I see? "Serve hot. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar or serve maple sirup with the toast."

Hooray!!! The real stuff! Nectar of the gods! That's all the permission I needed. My grade A medium amber was out on the table quicker than you can say "Maple Sirup." And what a difference it made... The French Toast was pretty good. It was a very basic recipe. No vanilla, no sugar, no fancy additions like nuts or coconut - just eggs, milk, and salt. The bread was supposed to be 1/2 inch thick and mine was not. It was just from a loaf of sandwich bread, so I had a lot left over. Were pre-sliced sandwich loaves sliced more thickly in that day, or was the recipe subtly calling for homemade bread? I had quite a bit of batter left over.

French Toast is a tough breakfast for the cook to enjoy as it should be eaten almost as soon as it comes out of the pan. When you've got several servings to fry up before turning off the burner, you've either got to wait patiently for the last of the Toast or try to eat while hopping up and down to the stove to flip a few more pieces in the pan. I've got lots of extras so this will be my menu for at least another day or two. Bring on the Maple Sirup!

By the by, I think I figured out why the month o' menus in the back of this cookbook rely on Corn Sirup (sometimes flavored) for Griddlecakes or French Toast. The section is titled, "How to Feed a Family of Five on $20.00 per Week." Corn syrup is definitely easier on the pocketbook than the real stuff.

Adventures at the Breakfast Table

So, they weren't the heaviest pancakes I ever ate. But they were darn close!

Day Two of the new addition to my morning routine, and here's the menu I picked out for breakfast this morning:

Apple Juice

Griddlecakes and Corn Sirup

Milk, Coffee

I have to be fair about the Griddlecakes recipe. I didn't follow the directions precisely. Didn't sift the dry ingredients. I used non-fat cooking spray to grease the pan. And I wonder if the 1% milk I used made any difference in the outcome. Would whole milk have made the pancakes any lighter? I definitely made my pancakes bigger than the author of the cookbook apparently made hers! The recipe promises 20 pancakes, I ended up with 12. Needless to say, there are lots of cold, heavy pancakes wrapped up in my fridge waiting for the breakfast table tomorrow morning...

Corn Sirup on my Griddlecakes? This made me super squeamish. Corn syrup rarely sees the light of day in my kitchen, so to set it out on my table felt very odd. I tried to talk myself through it. Most of the "maple" syrup we find in supermarkets is just corn syrup with maple flavoring, right? Just think of it as clear maple syrup. Not so easy! Anyway, the corn syrup sweetened the pancakes a little, but I was definitely missing the maple taste.

So why was this 1945 cookbook suggesting that I use "Corn Sirup" anyway? I thought maple syrup was promoted during the war as a great domestic substitute for sugar. Was it promoted so heavily that they ended up with a maple syrup shortage???

Adaptations

The menu originally included "Slab Bacon." Being a vegetarian, I passed on this course. I didn't make any coffee at home this morning - just enjoyed a cup at my desk once I got to work.