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?

Who Says You Can't Make Time Stand Still?

Dare I say it? I think my nights are getting longer.

The absence of television seems to have slowed down the clock here at the Jitterbug household on weekday evenings. I noticed this for the first time several days ago. "It must be about 10:00," I thought, looking up at the clock. Nope, just 8:30. "It must be a fluke. Just a coincidence," I told myself. Nope, I felt that extra jag of time the next night - and again the next. It's like the morning that Daylight Savings Time ends, when you're smiling like the Cheshire Cat just to luxuriate in bed for an extra hour. It's an absolutely unexpected phenomenon, but I'm loving it!

My evenings are beginning to feel positively leisurely... and that's something this working woman never thought she'd hear herself say about a weekday evening. It used to be that I'd get home from work, heat something up for supper - snap my fingers - and it'd be bedtime. These days, I find myself actually reading, thinking about taking hot baths, and singing the greatest hits of 1944 as I give the kitchen a little extra magic.

It's like I found a way to stop time! We've been talking about it for years, but I've actually found a way to add hours to the day!!! (Now the trick is going to be not to fritter away that extra time with equally fruitless pursuits.)

Some of the downsides to being without television:

Where to eat dinner? I don't let myself eat my vintage dinner on Sunday evenings in front of the TV, but that never stopped me any other night of the week. Now I find myself all awkward when I'm ready to eat. Like somebody all dressed up with no place to go. (You'd think the clean kitchen table at my elbow would be a hint.)

I find myself in odd moments fantasizing about some of the great television I've watched over the years. Masterpieces like Homefront, life-altering documentaries like The Farmer's Wife, even the cheesy, comforting sitcoms that wrap problems up so neatly in a 30-minute bow. When I tune back in, I don't want to spend the time that's standing still for me now on anything that I don't wholeheartedly enjoy.

Spreading Out

America's Housekeeping Book (1945) recommends that after cleaning up breakfast, the housewife straighten up the living room, give each of the bedrooms its daily cleaning, then head to the bathroom. The family had finished washing up and it was time for Mother to put the bathroom back to rights for the day.

There is a kind of rationale emerging behind the "skeleton housekeeping schedule" promoted by the authors of The Manual. They seem to feel that while a quick tidying of the first floor is useful in case of unexpected callers, the housewife ought to repair to the second floor as soon as possible and put those rooms in order. It was only then that she was advised to return to the first floor and give some attention to the living room, dining room, and - lastly - the kitchen. Did the bedrooms and bathroom get such early attention in case Dad or one of the children came home sick? (A comfy, clean bed and bath are awful nice when you feel like garbage!) Or were second-floor rooms hit early so that they'd be taken care of before the house really warmed up in hot weather?

Whatever the reason, here are the first few orders of business for daily care of the bathroom:

Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.

I don't have any windows in my bathroom. This has never actually been an asset until now. (One less thing to clean!) My only tool for air circulation in the bathroom is a ventilating fan set on the ceiling. Fresh air has got to come in especially handy in the bathroom and kitchen for all the water that's used in cleaning.

Pick up and replace small articles belonging in bathroom.

Our modern bathroom sink cabinetry lends itself to holding all kinds of the odds and ends we reach for most often. Here's a list of the items I picked up off the countertop that surrounds my own bathroom sink two days ago: blow dryer, roll of toilet paper, nail polish, cold cream, toothbrush, toothpaste, three elastics, nail clippers. A far cry from the washbowls of days gone by! If you tried to balance something on the edge of the sink in those days, you'd probably have lost it down the drain. I'm making a conscious effort this week to put things away where they belong. To get used to retrieving and returning even the items I use everyday. It makes a world of difference just to see all that counter space cleared off...

Medicine cabinets have never provided much in the way of storage space - they were even smaller then! - and the sinks of the 1940s had none of the storage space underneath 'em as do our modern bathrooms. While folks in the '40s may have had to have been more careful about stowing things in the vanity or linen closet, there were still a few items that were truly indispensable at the washbowl. This was the era when a wire soap dish was often affixed to the wall above the sink, when toothbrushes and a glass found a home in their own wall-mounted holder, when a tube of Dixie cups was screwed right into the side of the nearest wooden surface, and the most up-to-date sinks could be purchased with chrome-finished towel bars on either side of the basin. If the size of a vintage medicine cabinet ever has you scratching your head and wondering how on earth a family got by, just picture it surrounded by little holders for this or that.

Intervention

I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have stepped on the scale yesterday morning. I knew I was retaining water - as I always do when Aunt Flo's visit is pending. I knew it'd probably be useless to weigh in for the next three or four days... But I was greedy for another drop on the scale after last week's victory. So I did it. And, wouldn't you know it, I'm up two pounds to 189.

All day long, I tried to talk myself off the ledge, so to speak. "Stay calm. Keep up the work you've been doing. Weigh in again in a few days and you'll probably be right back down to 187. If that!" Well, that worked for awhile. By bedtime, the cramps were taking hold of whatever resistance I had left and I cheated. I wasn't even that hungry. I just started craving a pickle, then began building the perfect Triscuit snack in my mind. A Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuit with cream cheese and a slice of a kosher dill on top. So I made myself a plate of them (they were good) --- followed shortly by a handful or so of Ranch-flavored Quakes Rice Snacks. I had a fitful night's sleep and, when the Wash Day alarm went off at 4:45, I shut it down. This is the first Monday since January that I haven't done my laundry at its appointed time!

Clearly, this snowball of disappointment over yesterday's fruitless weigh-in is rolling downhill - and quickly gathering speed. I refuse to let it roll another inch, so I'm staging a mid-mission intervention. Effectively immediately!

Fitness
Walk 30 minutes a day, four times during the week. Walk 55 minutes a day, both days during the weekend.

Reducing
All snacks (consumed prior to 7:30, of course!) must consist of the following: fresh fruits or vegetables plus either one serving of almonds, one serving low-fat cottage cheese, or one serving hummus. (Note to self: Must investigate these serving sizes. And other nuts would probably be okay. I'll check this out.)

And a Word about Exercise

I was just looking back over some older posts --- way back to when I first started my vintage fitness routine. It may seem like a lifetime - it's actually been just seven weeks - but there have been some positive changes during those seven weeks and not all of them on the scale.

At two weeks, I felt a new spring in my step.

At four weeks, I felt like an old broken-down woman.

At seven weeks, I'm no longer dreading my walks. I wouldn't say I'm looking forward to them yet, but they're definitely not the torture they used to be... That probably has a lot to do with the stretching I've been doing after my walks, the water I've been drinking on a daily basis, and that blessed iPod. Having something to keep my mind occupied has made such a difference! No longer am I stuck going over my lengthy mental to-do lists and worrying about this or that. I can listen to new radio, vintage radio, music. It's been such a help - especially during my new fifth lap around the track on my weekend walks.

I bought some new exercise pants yesterday. It's getting hot enough even at 6:30 in the morning that I needed something lighter to wear. They're stretchy and black and flare out a bit at the knees. In fact, they're probably the most fitted item I've worn in public in years. I felt a wee bit self-conscious in them this morning, but that soon gave way to relief that I felt so much cooler than I had the day before in track pants!

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Antoinette Donnelly wrote an article on reducing in October 1940 and stresses how important walking (and water!) can be to the woman who needs to lose any pesky weight gained during summer vacation:

Walk almost as much every day as you did when you were tripping along over mountain roads, through shady woods, along the ocean front. If you can walk all the way, or part way to your office, or if after your evening meal you have to say good-by to family or friends who don't feel like joining you for your evening "constitutional," do it! Walk briskly and take longer than usual steps. A loafing walk does not do you much good.

Include in your diet bran, figs, prunes, fruits with their skins, and use mineral oil to make salad dressings. Drink plenty of water, all you comfortably can. Make it a habit to chew your food slowly so you will not eat so much. Don't eat between meals. If you feel hungry, drink unsweetened fruit juice. Stay away from alcoholic drinks, for there is nothing that puts on pounds quite so quickly. Don't be tempted by the delicious hors d'oeuvres, for they're full of calories.

Miss Donnelly's advice about leaving reluctant family and friends behind is just as valid today as it was in 1940. (I'm not so sure about the mineral oil!) We can't always wait for the people we'd like to exercise with to have the same motivation as we do at the same time. Sometimes you just have to go it alone.

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?

Week Twenty-eight: The Mission

It's time to face the music. Or, rather, the bathroom.

There are two areas in my home that I absolutely dread(ed) cleaning: the kitchen and the bathroom. I have to add that little (ed) in there because my kitchen and I are slowly mending fences. The bathroom and I are still on the outs. In fact, I can't honestly remember when I did anything more in there than to clean the toilet. So, while my scale appears to be headed in the right direction again, I'm going to squeeze in a new housekeeping mission.

The Manual lays out both a set of daily chores and a set of weekly chores for the bathroom. Knowing the trouble I had with the kitchen, I'm going to approach this new room the same way. I'll plan on covering all of the daily chores once a week (probably on Saturdays --- moving the kitchen back to Friday nights now that it's a bit more manageable) and splitting the list of weekly bathroom chores between alternating weeks.

Weekly Chores (These were recommended for housewives on a daily basis in 1945!)

1. Open windows top and bottom for free circulation of air.

2. Pick up and replace small articles belonging in bathroom.

3. Gather up to take out soiled linen (to hamper, if dry), and articles belonging in other rooms. Collect trash in waste basket. Roll up bath mat or rug.

4. Wipe mirror.

5. Wipe tile behind washbowl and tub.

6. Clean bathtub and metal fixtures (be sure to wipe shower fixtures and clean soap holder).

7. Clean toilet bowl with brush. Wipe outside of bowl and closet with cloth used for that purpose only.

8. Clean washbowl (be sure to wipe base as well as top; also clean soap holder).

9. Straighten towels and wash cloths. Put out clean linen when needed (fresh linen for all on Wednesdays and Saturdays).

10. Sweep floor. Gather up dust in pan. Floor should be washed.

11. Replace bath mat or rug. Close windows in cold or damp weather.

Week A

1. Rug should be cleaned and bathmat changed.

2. Duck shower curtain should be hung out in the sun if weather permits. (Clean curtain should be put up when needed.)

3. Walls should be wiped down with clean cloth or wall brush, washed when necessary.

4. Light fixtures, bulbs and globes should be dusted every week, washed when necessary.

5. Medicine cabinet should be dusted and straightened, washed when necessary.

Week B

1. Mirror should be dusted, washed when necessary.

2. Windows should be dusted inside, washed on both sides when necessary.

3. Curtains should be laundered when necessary.

4. Use special cleanser on toilet bowl.

5. Clothes hamper should be emptied, dried and aired each week, scrubbed and sunned occasionally when weather permits.

Detox

Day One

I'm good. So busy, I didn't even notice.

Day Two

Ditto.

Day Three

Ditto.

Day Four

Serious withdrawals. I was all antsy and jittery on Sunday evening. I felt so out of touch without the TV. Kind of like you feel after a long power outage at home. Which is odd since I can get plenty of news over the radio or in news stories online. Maybe there's something about the visual element to television news that makes me feel like I'm getting the real scoop. I don't know... I definitely felt like I was missing out on things I wouldn't get the chance to see again. Sunday evening was the pits.

Day Five
One of the things I like doing when I have a weekday off - or a sick day - is catching up on one or two of the soap operas I loved as a teenager. And late Monday morning, right on cue, I realized I'd missioned myself right out of my soaps. Eek --- no Newman family Memorial Day barbecue on Y&R! No picnic and fireworks amid mob shootouts in the park on GH! Am I actually going to have to start living my own life? I clung to my vintage radio programs like a lifeline on Monday.

Day Six
I've become accustomed to ironing with American Idol. It's one of those chores that really goes well with television. I'm listening to some music instead tonight. Right now, a May 27, 1936 episode of "Your Hit Parade" is playing. It was the Top 40 of its day. They only featured 15 songs per show, but the songs were covered live by their house orchestra and vocalists. You know, ironing to music isn't half bad. I think I'm actually working a little more quickly. Maybe I'll have to add some more musical programs to my collection...

After announcing my mission last Thursday, I've had to make some additional decisions about what I meant exactly by "no TV." After all, TV is available online now - sometimes in full episodes, sometimes in clips. You can see TV on DVDs, too. I gave it some thought and decided that none of the above would be okay during these seven weeks. Also, no movies on DVD. If I want to see a movie, I've got to get up and leave the house to go see it in a theater. Or watch something with a group of friends. If I'm going to treat myself to a movie, it's got to be something I get out there and exert some energy in order to see.

There's always been a little something off to me about shutting myself up in my home and privately consuming entertainment. And yet that's the outcome of the story of entertainment during the last century. Once upon a time, people went out to vaudeville shows or community theatricals of some sort - maybe a dance at the local Grange hall - to break up the workaday routine. As radio came in and the record industry boomed, they began retreating a bit more to their homes. Hosting parties for friends of their own choosing. Even when television began being broadcast, people would watch it in roadhouses or have viewing parties at home. They still enjoyed being entertained in the company of others. While we haven't closed ourselves off from the world entirely, I know plenty of folks who don't even watch TV or movies with other family members. Couples who share the same Netflix account, but rarely watch the movies together. Our music is wired directly into our earbuds, movies downloaded right to our computer screens, and we can program right through whatever commercials or slow-moving storylines might have interrupted our favorite TV programs and watch a whole day's worth of favorite programs in no time flat.

I'm vastly over-generalizing here, I know - and heaven knows what a boon my iPod has been to me, especially while walking - but there's something very antisocial in the way we keep ourselves entertained in 2009. We can target very precisely the things we want to watch or listen to, but is that quite as good a deal as it sounds? Are we missing out on anything? Maybe in hearing or seeing the reactions of others. Or in discovering something randomly wonderful that we'd never have picked out for ourselves... Just some of the things I'm finding PLENTY of time to think about these days! I'd be interested to know what y'all think. Will unplugging the TV force me out of this cocoon to seek the real thing?

4 + 3 = 7

Three more pounds! Three more pounds!
I have lo-ost three more pounds!

*Sung to the tune of Disney's "Be Our Guest" while dancing around the apartment like an animated candelabra.

Seriously, gals, three pounds in one week. All because I gave ice cream the ol' heave-ho and added a fifth lap onto my weekend walks?!? As I stepped on the scale this morning, I tried so hard to visualize the number 189. Just wanted to crack into the 180s so bad... I practically fell over when 187 appeared, as you can imagine! That's seven pounds lost in all since beginning this fitness and reducing plan. Hooray!!!

Off to celebrate - and to knock on some wood. I'm totally jinxing myself for next week!